Tico Coffee Roasters
Guatemala Santa Cruz Barillas
Guatemala Santa Cruz Barillas
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Unless you will parachute into Santa Cruz Barillas, you should plan for one of the most extended coffee treks of your life. While many are familiar with Huehuetenango and the reputation of the coffee region, only some have ventured to this isolated corner of Guatemala.
The spectacularly rugged terrain has served to preserve the indigenous heritage, distinct clothing, and dialects that can vary from one mountain ridge to the next. In this cultural oasis, Asociación Barillense de Agricultores (ASOBAGRI) has become an essential bridge to the international coffee community.
This cooperative is simply one of the most sophisticated and well-organized in the world. With more than 1,400 members, spread across 80 communities, who cultivate and harvest their own coffee on small farms with their own micro-mills, ASOBAGRI has the enormous task of providing training and technical support that is appropriately tailored to the members' needs.
Strategies like using coffee pulp to make organic fertilizers reduce the transportation costs associated with purchasing fertilizer from afar, and at the same time, create an abundant source of organic plant nutrition that ensures better yields and quality.
Drying practices are also exquisitely uniform among members who use mobile raised beds that can be stacked and covered at night to protect the coffee and then unstacked and spread out during the day to dry the coffee in the sun.
The coffee is from organic production and is fair-trade certified.
Origin
Grower: Small grower estates and small producers
Farm: Various small farms
Region: Santa Cruz Barillas, Huehuetenango, Guatemala
Cultivar: Bourbon, Catuaí, Caturra
Altitude: 1650 meters
Processing Method: Fully washed and sun-dried
Profile
Roast Level: Medium Dark Roast 
Cup profile: Chocolate, Cashew, Creamy
The Cup: This coffee shows the hard work of the farmers in the mountains of Guatemala with a chocolate base, that is accompanied by a bright creamy mouthfeel and tones of cashews and roasted hazelnuts. The coffee is rounded off with a sweet tone and some undelaying flavors of oats. Just like a sweet chocolate dessert!
