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Pastime Coffee

La Esperanza Guatemala

La Esperanza Guatemala

$22.00 USD
$22.00 USD
Sale Sold out
Shipping calculated at checkout.
Size
  • We roast and fulfill orders Tuesday and Thursday


FRUITY, RIPE, CRISP. 

Producer: Familia Villatoro
Location:Hoja Blanca, Cuilco
Elevation: 1600-1900 meters
Variety: Bourbon
Process: Mosto

La Esperanza was founded in 1956 by Eleodoro de Jesús Villatoro López and has been continuously owned and operated by the Villatoro family. Over the years, the farm has seen significant improvements, especially in transportation infrastructure, with new roads connecting it to the main town of Huehuetenango. Despite these advancements, La Esperanza, like many other producers in the region, faces ongoing challenges during harvest season, including labor scarcity, climate change-related weather issues, and rising input costs.

La Esperanza is located in Hoja Blanca, within the municipality of Cuilco. Its unique geography, surrounded by three mountain ranges and the mountains of Mexico to the west, creates microclimates ideal for specialty coffee production. The mineral-rich soils also provide excellent drainage, crucial for healthy root systems and nutrient uptake in the coffee trees. At 15 hectares, it's one of the largest farms we collaborate with in Guatemala. They cultivate five coffee varieties: caturra, bourbon, maragogype, SL28, and gesha. The coffee trees are intercropped with native shade trees such as grevillea, chalúm, and various citrus fruit trees.

Regarding processing, the Villatoro family became interested in more process-forward coffees in 2020. During the 2022/23 harvest, they extensively researched and experimented, finding success with batches incorporating a culture of microorganisms, sugars, and enzymes from a previous fermentation. For their "mosto" process, ripe cherries are first fermented whole in sealed GrainPro bags for 32 hours. Native yeasts and bacteria, entering through picking-induced holes, begin breaking down the sugars and mucilage. The cherries are then de-pulped without water and returned to sealed GrainPro bags for an additional 36 hours of fermentation. At this stage, they add a mosto—the culture from the initial cherry fermentation—at a 1:1 ratio with the pulped coffee. This mixture ferments for another 36 hours. Afterward, the coffee is washed and meticulously dried using a two-stage process. First, it dries on raised beds in a greenhouse for 8 days. Then, it's collected, placed in sacks, and transferred to a warehouse to rest for 8 days, preventing accelerated drying and preserving its flavor profile. Finally, it returns to the beds for an additional 7 days of drying.

This lot represents a departure from the type of coffee we typically offer at Pastime. We are finding this mosto process coffee to have the fruit forward intensity normally found in a natural process coffee but with the vibrant and clean flavor profile of a washed coffee. This makes it a truly unique and mouth watering tasting experience that we are excited to share with you all!
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Shipping policy.

We roast all orders on Tuesday and Thursday. Orders placed after 4:30am PST on Tuesday or Thursday will be shipped on the following roast day.

Please select a secure delivery address to send your coffee. All packages are shipped with insurance; however, this does not cover packages that have gone missing after they are marked as delivered by the carrier. Pastime Coffee is not responsible for packages that are lost or stolen.

Please email orders@pastime.coffee for any additional questions or concerns.

Roasting style.

All of our single-origin coffees are roasted as lightly as possible while ensuring full flavor development, clarity, and highlighting terroir.

Our blends, 4:30am and Sure Thing offer a variety of roasting styles and are engineered for consistency and reliability. Please visit those products for more information on those specific roasting styles.

Please note that our coffee should be rested for at least 7 days after roasting to achieve optimal results.

Can you grind my coffee for me?

Yes! All orders are shipped whole bean by default. If you need us to grind your order, please let us know in the notes section at checkout. Don't forget to also add your brew method so we get the grind size correct.