Technical info

Origin: Guatemala

BRANDNAME: La Cascada Estate

FARM NAME: Flor del Rosario

LOCATION: San Cristóbal Verapaz, Alta Verapaz

QUALITY TYPE: Fancy SHB (Fancy Strictly Hard Bean)

AVERAGE ANNUAL PRODUCTION: 2,000 bags/69kg

ALTITUDE: 1200 – 1500 meters above sea level

AVERAGE RAINFALL PER ANNUM: 2,000 mm

MAIN RAINFALL MONTHS: June – November

ARABICA VARIETIES: Bourbon, Caturra

BEAN CHARACTERISTICS: Extremely hard, close bean cut

HARVEST PERIOD: January – April

MILLING PROCESS: Washed

DRYING PROCESS: Sun-dried and drum-dried

About

Rolling through the town of San Cristóbal Verapaz it’s easy to feel as if you are moving backwards in time to an ancient Mayan village. The tremendously bright colors abound and the smell of wood-burning stoves hovers over every corner. After leaving the town, heading into the verdantly green valleys of Alta Verapaz, we come across the farm Flor del Rosario, owned by our German friend Horst Spitzke.

Don Horst traveled abundantly through Latin America first stopping in Costa Rica, and then on to Mexico before settling in Guatemala in 1961. Although he first planted coffee on the farm in 1988, his coffee has already become one of Guatemala’s finest. His coffee finished 6th at the Guatemalan Coffee Internet Auction in 2002 and was the only coffee from the entire Alta Verapaz region to qualify.

Amongst the coffee is a plethora of natural beauty. The diversity of flora and fauna make the farm a natural wonder. Trekking deep into the 550 hectares of land that encompasses Don Horst’s farm you will find a wealth of flowers including Orchids, Cardamoms and the Monja Blanca, which is Guatemala’s national flower. Deeper inside the farm you will find a beautiful 100 meter natural spring waterfall that honors our brand “La Cascada”, which means “The Waterfall” in Spanish. A few feet away from the waterfall’s mainstream you will find small rock caves formed by millions of years of water erosion.

The beauty of Horst Spitzke’s coffee is no different than that of his farm. This coffee comes from a region that is famed for its tropical rainforest, its storied indigenous past and its wonderfully acidic coffee. Don Horst is a passionate coffee farmer and experimented miller, who is devoted since 1988 to get only the best out of his farm and his coffee may be the most strikingly acidic in the region. This citric explosion, coupled with a very well rounded body creates a single-origin delight for the ages.