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A Mexican roast that fits our roaster’s high standards finally found its way to our facility, and this one is absolutely fantastic. It has perfect balance, with a pronounced milk chocolate introduction, followed by notes of brown sugar, vanilla, cherry, and a little wink of citrus, with a lovely creamy finish. A washed process bean, we medium roast it to bring out the truly full bodied flavor it offers.
Grown in the central sierra mountains of Veracruz, Mexico, the town of Huatusco is in the relatively high mountains, at about 4,200 feet elevation. The workers tend to speak indigenous languages, not Spanish, and therefore have been growing crops a long time, and know how to get the most out of this land. They definitely achieved that goal with these coffee beans.
The Huatusco beans have a unique process used to de-pulp the coffee cherries, adding rehydrated yeast and mucilage as part of the 48 hour fermentation process, leading to a sweeter, fruitier bean than most washed process coffee beans.
Our first natural process from Guatemala, it has lower acidity than the Ethiopian naturals, while still having a fruity profile. Blackberry, mango are the first flavors we picked up, with guava, red currant following and just the most subtlest of chocolate coming through as the cup cooled. It feels like an Ethiopian natural without the acidity or strong citrus profile.
These beans come from the southeastern part of Guatemala, in a very rural, inaccessible, mountainous area above Laguna de Ayarza (locally known as “Blue Lake”), where there are less than 10 homes in total around its perimeter. Cold, deep and pristine, the lake is said to be formed by two massive volcanoes that collapsed into a large crater, parts of the bottom having never been found. The beloved lake is part of legendary folklore for the locals. Because natural process coffee beans have more rigorous requirements, only those grown in the 5,500-6,000 elevation are selected.
Due to the hilly conditions where the beans are grown, the natural process beans are transported to a neighboring region where there is flatter land available for drying them in the sun, with sufficient breezes to blow over them. Laid out in layers of 3-4″ deep, they are dried for 5-6 days while being constantly turned during the day. The cherries go from red or yellow to purple, and then black. They are then finished for a half a day in mechanical dryers, this final process helping to control the acidity and ensure a final dry process without any pesky rain showers that may cause re-absorption of rainwater.
