About this Coffee
Benjamin Donado and his family have operated Plan del Guayabo since 1990. When they first purchased the land, it was predominantly forest, with many guava trees populating the area, and thus the farm was named Plan del Guayabo, meaning “fields of guava”.
Volcan de Suchitan is a remote region, named after the Suchitan Volcano in Guatemala. Farmers would typically sell coffee in cherry form to collectors, who bring the coffee to regional processing facilities. Similarly, the Donados sold their harvest as cherry for the first 8 years.
In 1999, the family made the investment in their own wet mill and drying patios, enabling them to sell their harvest after processing as parchment. This allows them to command better prices from the improved coffee quality, and also maintain traceability back to their farm, to grow their brand name.
Coffee is selectively handpicked and processed on the farm. Cherry is floated to remove any underripe, and then laid to sundry on patios. It is raked frequently to ensure even drying, taking about 14-30 days.
This coffee in this lot was processed using traditional natural-processing techniques. The Donados call the processing method ‘natural winey’ process, in order to differentiate their small-scale processing from the larger-scale natural processing that is common throughout Brazil.
This complex coffee is roasted for filter methods but is also delicious as a black espresso beverage. Try it with a coffee to espresso ratio of 1:2.5!