La Joya Grande
Molasses sweetness, juicy mouthfeel, soft orange acidity with notes of apple, melon, apricot and maple.
Finca Joya Grande lies high in the mountains of Guatemala’s Huehuetenango Department. This region has unique conditions for producing specialty coffee, as coffee can grow at very high elevations (up to 2,000m above sea level) thanks to the dry, hot winds that blow into the mountains from Mexico’s Tehuantepec plain which protect the region from frost. These high altitudes and relatively predictable climate make for exceptional specialty coffee, and this special coffee from La Joya Grande is a prime example of the potential of this region!
The current owner of Finca Joya Grande is Austreberto Morel Hidalgo Argueta (76) and his son, Ecner Morel Hidalgo Molino, who is the fourth generation to farm this privileged land. Ecner took over the full time management in 2015, and while he works to preserve the legacy of his great Grandfather, the first man to farm coffee here, he has added his own improvements as well, and over the last 2 years has dramatically improved the quality of coffee that is being produced by this farm, by improving the quality of the picking and making tweaks to the way the coffee is processed.
It is telling of the region’s remoteness that the road that leads to the farm was built by Austreberto himself in 1984. Prior to that, all coffee had to be transported in and out of the farm on horseback by narrow paths.
The farm is comprised of 52 hectares, 35 of which are planted under Caturra, Bourbon and Catuai varietals, all of which is shade-grown. The rest of the farm’s land is maintained as forest preserve. Perhaps the deep emerald green of the hillsides gives the farm it’s name, which means ‘large jewel’ in Spanish.
One of Don Astreberto’s sons is an Agronomist, and he has overseen all aspects of the farm’s activities for the past 15 years. Together, he and his father have personally dedicated themselves to the supervision and control of all farm activities, from pruning to fertilisation to maintaining healthy and pest free trees. On average, the trees on the farm at 20 years old. The pruning system they have adopted is selective, whereby each plant receives the exact treatment it needs from year to year, rather than by block. Caturra, Bourbon and Catuai varieties were chosen as they perform very well in the local climate, and every effort is made to ensure that renovation takes place using the very same varieties of coffee. The stringent cultivation practices make sure that the trees are given the very best opportunity to produce optimum coffee.
The father and son team don’t let that work fall flat! An equal amount of work goes into making sure that processing gives the opportunity for each lot of coffees to develop the full range of characteristics that it can. The harvest begins in early January and ends in late March. Coffees is selectively hand harvested, with pickers choosing only the ripest cherries, and is then machine pulped. After pulping, the coffee is fermented in fermentation tanks for around 12 hours. It is then washed using a demucilager and delivered to dry on the farm’s patios for 8 to 10 days. The farm provides employment for around 15 people year round and this increases to 60 during the peak harvest.
We selected this specific lot (comprising Caturra and Bourbon varieties) earlier this year on our annual trip to Guatemala for it’s delicious cup profile. It is this first time we have bought from Finca La Joya Grande and we hope to build on this relationship year on year.
