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Peña Blanca, Guatemala
Peña Blanca, Guatemala
Peña Blanca, Guatemala

Peña Blanca, Guatemala

$18.00 USD

NOUGAT, COCOA, DRIED APRICOT

Founded in 1992 by Salvador’s father, Salvador (Sal) Melgar and Marielisa Hernandez’s farm is located in San Agustín Acasaguastlán. While 26 acres of the farm are dedicated to coffee, the farm has nearly 780 acres dedicated to forest preserve. Sal and Marielisa are renovating the farm piece by piece. The farm was unattended for several years before they took over, and they are gradually pushing the boundaries of the planted areas. On-site, the coffee is white honey processed, which means that most of the fruit pulp is removed mechanically before it is dried on patios and raised beds. This process gives the coffee a medium, syrupy body, but it has enough cup clarity to give the impression that the coffee is wet processed. Sal and Marielisa place much emphasis on water efficiency and recirculate mill water for floating cherries in the receiving tank. After processing the coffee is dried on raised beds for 14 or more days in a drying facility they built from salvaged wood on the farm. Sal and Marielisa supplement their income by working jobs outside of coffee. Sal leases farmland in southeastern Guatemala, and Marielisa works in design.

PRODUCT DETAILS

PRODUCER Salvador and Marielisa Melgar PLANT VARIETY
 Pache, Caturra, Catuai C MARKET AT POSSESSION $1.20/lb
FARM Peña Blanca HARVEST
 Spring 2020 COST OF PRODUCTION $2.56/lb
FARM SIZE 29.4 hectares PROCESS
 Honey FOB/EXW $3.13/lb/$4.80
REGION, GEOGRAPHY El Progreso, Oriente EXPORTER
 Tostaduría de Café el Quetzalito S.A. FARM GATE $2.40/lb
ELEVATION 1432-1645masl IMPORTER TerraNegra Coffee Imports COST OF PRODUCTION PREMIUM $0.32/lb, $3.45/lb

RELATIONSHIP TO JUNIORS

This coffee is Cost of Production Covered (CoPC)! This is the fourth harvest Junior’s has purchased from Peña Blanca, and TerraNegra Trade Company has helped bridge the relationship. Ana Cristina (Cristy) Guirola, owner of TerraNegra, imports some of the most spectacular tasting coffees we’ve tasted. What’s more, Cristy is a sincere advocate for coffee producers. She believes in price transparency and roaster/producer bridge building, and was instrumental in starting the CoPC Project. In fact, Peña Blanca is the first coffee that Junior’s bought from Cristy back in 2016. Over the last year, Mike, Cristy, Sal, and Marielisa have been working on a new contract that incorporates the cost of production plus a premium that includes the gross margin on that cost. Junior’s and Peña Blanca will be sharing data over the coming months in order to get more detailed with it for next harvest. Check out Junior's Journal for project updates!

HOW WE BREW COFFEE

There are countless influential variables and industry professionals that influence the quality of coffee before it reaches the coffee cup, and the last step to reap the benefits of this tremendous work takes place when it’s brewed.

Before talking about how this coffee brews best, let’s review some brewing basics:

  1. Dose is the amount of coffee we use (measured in grams). If you don’t have access to a digital scale, know that 1 tablespoon is equivalent to 6-8 grams of wholebean coffee.

  2. Water Input is the weight of the water we use (measured in grams) to brew with.

    * We suggest a coffee to brew water ratio of 1:16 to 1:17 for filter coffee. For example, if you’re using 15g of coffee and 250g water, your brew ratio is 1:16.67. 

  3. Burr grinders will give you a more consistent Grind Size, and you’ll be able to repeat the same grind size twice. It’s best to grind your coffee right before brewing, because grinding your coffee too far in advance accelerates the aging process of your roasted coffee. Remember that the finer you grind, the more you extract.

  4. Brew Time is the amount of time the water and coffee interact together. The longer you brew something for, the more you extract.

  5. We recommend Brew Water Temperature between 200°F and 205°F. If you are using a kettle on the stove, bring the water to a boil and wait 30-45 seconds off boil before using the water to brew. The hotter your brewing water is, the faster you can extract coffee.

HOW WE BREW THIS COFFEE

Brew Ratio: We brew this coffee with a 1:16.5 brew ratio.

Grind: On a scale of 1-9 (1 finest, 9 coarsest) we use a 6.75 for flat bottom filter.

Total Brew Time: Use a 2:35 minute brew time for V60 filter, 4-5minutes for batch brewer or flat bottom pour over, 4-5 minutes for Chemex.