Guatemala Huehuetenango Ojapa Blanca Washed Bourbon CaturraCoffee Bean Intro:

Guatemala Huehuetenango Ojapa Blanca Washed Bourbon Caturra

Guatemala Coop Hoja Blance Washed Bourbon Caturra

Coffee region: Huehuetenango

Planting altitude: 1400to 1800meters

Coffee variety: Bourbon, Caturra

Processing method: washed process

 Coffee region

This washed Guatemalan coffee bean comes from the Ojapa Blanca cooperative in the Huehuetenango region.

 “Huehuetenango"Huehuetenango" is translated as Huehuetenango, and the name originates from Nahuatl ( Nahuatl), meaning "land of the ancients (or ancestors)."

The Huehuetenango region is located in the northwestern highlands of Guatemala and is renowned for producing high-quality beans. The coffee from this area has a rich and intense flavor profile, with a high body, and smokiness is its most distinctive characteristic.

In higher-altitude environments, coffee grows more slowly, which is beneficial for the accumulation of nutrients. However, if the altitude is too high, coffee trees may also suffer from frost due to excessively low temperatures, or even fail to survive.

Yet, coffee planted in Huehuetenango, even at altitudes of nearly 2000meters, rarely experiences frost. The high yet mild growing environment produces premium strictly hard bean (SHB) coffee. This is entirely thanks to the warm, dry air from the Mexican plains, which protects the coffee trees here from frost damage.

The Ojapa Blanca cooperative was established in 1969and has 45members, with a cultivated area of 1.54square kilometers and an annual production of approximately 3300bags of green coffee beans. It holds Fair Trade certification, UTZcertification, and Starbucks’ CAFE Practicescertification.

 Coffee variety

Guatemala mainly grows Bourbon, Typica, Catuai, and Caturra, along with small amounts of Yellow Bourbon, Gesha, and Pacamara, offering a fairly diverse range. However, preserving ancient Typica and Bourbon varieties is also quite commendable.

This coffee bean includes two varieties: Bourbon and Caturra, in a ratio of approximately 1：1。

Caturra is a natural mutation of the Bourbon variety. It was discovered in a plantation in Minas Gerais, Brazil, between 1915and 1918.

Caturra has a single-gene mutation that causes the plant to grow shorter. After its discovery, the Agronomic Institute of Campinas (IAC) in São Paulo, Brazil, began selection work from (IAC)in 1937. Breeders were interested in Caturra’s “short stature” because it allows plants to be placed closer together, and its secondary branches are also closely spaced, enabling more fruit to be produced in the same space.

 Processing method

Due to the abundance of rivers and lakes in Guatemala, the Huehuetenango region is rich in mountains and water resources, with a dry climate but ample water supply. Additionally, the region has well-developed water infrastructure, so coffee is mostly processed using the washed method.

After harvesting ripe coffee cherries, impurities, defective beans, and floaters are initially removed, which is the same as the natural process up to this point.

The fresh cherries are then sent to a depulper ( pulping machine) to remove the skin and pulp. Unripe cherries, which are difficult to separate from the pulp, are screened out at this stage. After the depulping process, what remains are mucilage, parchment, and seeds.

The seeds with mucilage are transferred into fermentation tanks. Through the fermentation process, the mucilage is biologically broken down and removed. The fermentation process lasts about 16——36hours, during which stirring is required frequently to accelerate the separation of mucilage from the seeds. Washed fermentation produces acidic substances such as citric acid, malic acid, and acetic acid, which seep into the green beans, making the washed method beans more acidic than those processed naturally. After fermentation, the coffee beans are washed again.

After washing, they still need to be sun-dried or machine-dried until the moisture content is reduced to around 11%. Since the pulp has been removed in the washed method, there is no need to worry about mold during drying as with the natural process. The dried parchment beans are also not as hard as those from the natural process, which includes pulp and skin, and can be easily hulled using a hulling machine to obtain green beans.

Roast curve