Crown Jewel Guatemala RFA San Miguel Dueñas The Falla Family Natural CJ1541 – 31733 – SPOT RCWHSE

Taste

Taste Analysis by Chris Kornman

We’re not always in the habit of releasing late-arrival Central American coffees, but when we do you can bet that there’s something special going on.

This is the second Antigua-region Guatemala we’ve made a Crown Jewel in 2023, and it’s worlds apart from the first (a classic Bella Vista washed coffee). Rather, here we have a natural coffee, floated and rinsed before drying on raised beds in full sun.

It’s a well-balanced coffee with distinctive and classic chocolate and ripe cherry flavors. As a sample roast, we noted grape, strawberry, and pink lemonade.

A production roast, despite being slightly darker than our usual style, offered plenty of brightness in the cup, and I noted ripe grape and some sweet gingerbread flavors, while colleagues found kiwi, blueberry, and sweet floral hints.

Pour-overs and espressos teetered between summery notes of strawberry lemonade and more autumnal flavors of fresh apple pie. We all seemed to agree that the coffee was effortlessly enjoyable – Colin’s first V60 was immediately charming, and MJ’s first and last impressions on shots were equally captivating.

Its gentle complexity and elegant sweetness likely offer something for just about everyone. It has an endearingly long finish regardless of preparation method which makes it an unforgettable experience.

Source

Source Analysis by Charlie Habegger

The city of Antigua is in many ways a modern coffee eden. It’s iconic, laid back, gorgeously ornate, and for a city of its size it is absolutely teeming with historic coffee infrastructure. Coffee from almost anywhere in Sacatepéquez department is known simply as “Antigua”, and their sugar profiles range from butterscotch to marzipan sweetness, and acids from lemonade-like piquancy to dessert wine or tangy dried fruit.

Guatemala’s best centralized wet mills and best boutique exporters are based in Antigua. There are thousands of farms in the area, from the city’s legacy estates to patchwork smallholder communities climbing most of the way up Volcán de Agua, one of three looming stratovolcanoes that seem to be visible from every street corner in town and play a large part in Antigua’s famous soil composition. Such a variety of producers begets coffees with endless combinations of microclimates, elevations and varieties. There is a lot to work with here, and a lot of talent.

The Falla family first started growing coffee in the Antigua valley in 1890. In the 1960s Arturo Fall Cofiño, the third generation of the Falla family to live in Antigua, purchased a 100-hectare neighboring plot of land to the family’s original farm and named it “El Tempixque” after the tempisque tree that stood at the front gate of the new property. The farm is organized in a traditional way for large estates of that era: by “tablón”, or plot, which are each planted with single cultivars, evenly shaded by grevillea trees, and whose borders are traced with macadamia trees. The farm was originally planted with a majority of bourbon, but these days it includes Caturra, Catuaí, Marsellesa, a high-productive Sarchimor dwarf, and soon, Gesha. The farm is constantly being renewed plot by plot, at a pace that accomplishes a complete renovation every 20 years.

Of Arturo’s five children, Estuardo Falla would be the one to continue leading the family’s estate when Arturo passed away in 1992. Estuardo modernized the coffee operation significantly, including establishing complete wet and dry milling operations, as well as a family-managed exporting company. With these assets in place, the Falla family could not only process and export 100% of their own coffee, but also be service providers to other estates in their community. Now, El Tempixque produces 11 containers of coffee, all of which are Rainforest Alliance certified, in addition to milling and exporting for family estates all over the country.

The presence of the newest generation is also having an impact these days as Adrian and Sebastian, descendants of Arturo and Estuardo, are together innovating small-scale processing techniques and opening new global markets for the coffees they represent. They’re also extending the family’s impact through the Arturo Falla Confiño Association, which provides education, medical, and dental services to El Tempixque’s 160 employees, as well as to more than 500 small coffee producers in Antigua—historically under-resourced and over-looked compared to larger estates.

Green

Green Analysis by Chris Kornman

A fragrant, fruity green coffee with a bit of reddish silver skin on a few of the beans, this natural Guatemala from the Antigua Valley has fairly unremarkable green coffee metrics. In size, the coffee is about average, with a bell curve mostly concentrated in screens 16-18. The density is middling, and moisture peaks out just above average, with an above-average water activity as well. With all this in mind, I usually recommend gentler charge temperatures and initial gas settings to allow the low-density, high-moisture coffee some extra time to warm up to the roaster (see what I did there?).

The Falla family is growing some classic varieties: Bourbon and Caturra. Guatemala, like many other American coffee cultivation regions, would have replaced their aging Typica groves in the late 19th century as newly available Bourbon trees offered higher yields per hectare. Caturra is a short stature Bourbon mutation, first observed in Brazil in 1937 and is now planted widely throughout the Americas. Its primary advantage is that it may be planted more densely than full-size trees, further improving per-hectare yields without compromising quality.

Diedrich IR-5

Diedrich IR-5 Analysis by Chris Kornman

This delicious and slightly delicate natural Guatemala was a charmer in the roaster, responding easily to gas moves and behaving as expected during the profiling process.

Using an approach similar to Doris’ usual style, I idled the machine at about 415F and began the roast with closed airflow and low burner setting, soaking briefly for 50 seconds prior to kicking up the burners. Color change occurred clearly and a little earlier than I expected, and I quickly opened the airflow to halfway and cut the gas back to idle. After a brief environmental temp spike (due to the extra oxygen from extra airflow) the temperature stabilize and the coffee coasted nicely to first crack, right on target at eight minutes and 385F.

I immediately noticed the rising bean temperature, indicated by the little bump in rate of change after first crack, and cut the burners to zero briefly to make sure the coffee didn’t take off on me. This is pretty common in my experience for natural coffees and higher-moisture-content beans.

Once the change rate slowed to about 5F/60s I returned the burners to their idle setting and coasted to a finish with 1:45 of development time, about 18% of the total roast, and an end temperature of just under 400F.

With a 57 ColorTrack reading (ground), it was just a shade darker than we usually take coffees like this, but without a trace of roast at the cupping table, I’m confident that this coffee can easily navigate the full light to medium spectrum of roast color with ease.

We tasted blueberry and cranberry, grape juice, and kiwi, with a delicate floral note and some gingerbread sweetness. The finish is clean, but pleasantly lingering and the coffee really has a very noticeable sweetness to it.

Keep an eye on that spike in temperature after the first crack, but otherwise, roasting this coffee was a dream and the cup is clean, approachable, and balanced while still being delightfully juicy and fruit-forward.

Aillio Bullet R1

Aillio Bullet R1 IBTS Analysis by Evan Gilman 

Unless otherwise noted, we use both the roast.world site and Artisan software to document our roasts on the Bullet. You can find our roast documentation below, by searching on roast.world, or by clicking on the Artisan links below.  

Generally, we have good results starting our 500g roasts with 428F preheating, P6 power, F2 fan, and d6 drum speed. Take a look at our roast profiles below, as they are constantly changing! 

Heartened by Chris’ roasting notes about the flexibility of this stunning selection from Guatemala, I approached this coffee wanting to perform a roast with extended Maillard to really draw out the fruity flavors. While I sometimes have a difficult time wrangling the late-Maillard spikes of naturally processed Central American coffees, this one was a regular peach – easy to lasso and more predictable than I’d bargained for.  

I started with a pretty good push: a charge temperature of 464F and P9 power that I held until 2:05 / 280F. From there, I lowered to P7 and increased fan speed to F3, then F4 after yellowing, which as Chris mentioned, came a bit early. I kept these settings until about 30 seconds before First Crack, watching the coffee with a hawkish eye for signs it was about to start popping. Through Maillard, my rate of change became a bit volatile, but averaged out to about 18.5F/minute. Luckily, I avoided any extreme spikes by reducing power to P6 and increasing fan to F5, which usually tanks my roast. In this case, the coffee kept on chugging of its own accord, straight through post-crack development at a leisurely pace. I reduced heat to P5, and was able to get 1:42 of development.  

This roast was heavily weighted toward Maillard, and the cup has every indication of that as well. Super sweet and sugary, this roast is a perfect accompaniment to a dessert platter. That’s how much I like sugar, by the way – I have desserts by the platter. Anyhow, through the dominant chocolatiness that I love so much in Guatemalan coffees were some very clean and clear fruit flavors: sapote, pear, black cherry, and concord grape. While it was excellent as a filter drip, I would love to try this coffee as an espresso. You’re going to have an excellent time with this delicious RFA certified coffee! 

You can follow along with my roast here at roast.world: https://roast.world/egilman/roasts/m_l5TPzd0dL222iT1n3Kb 

Ikawa Pro V3

Ikawa Pro V3 Analysis by Isabella Vitaliano

Our current Ikawa practice compares two sample roast profiles, originally designed for different densities of green coffee. The two roasts differ slightly in total length, charge temperature, and time spent between color change in first crack. You can learn more about the profiles here.

The flavor profile, the story, an RFA certification, and cup quality; this coffee seems to have it all. Leaning more mellow for a natural processed coffee, some notes the team got were blueberries, gingerbread, grape juice, kiwi, and mild florals. With an RFA certification to back up the incredible effort undertaken by the Falla family, you really can’t go wrong. Let’s see how this coffee responds to two different roasts.

The high-density profile of this coffee created a really bright and tart cup. With lots of orange zest, dried fruit, and tart tropical notes this cup had a brightness that had me going back for more without compromising the body of the coffee.

Low and slow the low-density profile nurtured some more complexity with orange juice, mango, a little bit more florals, and a higher sweetness. This profile cooled off more mildly with a slight toasty finish. Both cups had this undertone of blackberry and blueberry that was especially delicious.

The high-density roast for this coffee was the winner for me. The berry notes paired with tart tropical flavors were really interesting but still mellow enough that it could convert any dedicated washed coffee lover. If you prefer an even more delicate cup with developed sweetness and a hint of florals, I recommend the low-density profile. Happy cupping!

You can roast your own by linking to our profiles in the Ikawa Pro app here:

Roast 1: Low Density Sample Roast 

Roast 2: High Density Sample Roast   

Brew

Brew Analysis by Colin Cahill

Having overheard some of Chris and Doris’s notes from their cupping, I was excited to get these beans here in the Tasting Room to brew up and examine! It sounded like it might have flavor notes reminiscent of an Ethiopian natural or a clean, natural gesha, but some coffees can present very different qualities in infusion versus immersion brews, and there’s often an element of surprise in our analyses. We found a lot of berry and floral notes, sweetness across the brews, though some had more body and cocoa richness. I want to highlight a well-extracted brew on the conical V60 and one slightly-over-extracted brew on the flat-bottom Kalita Wave brewer.

Working with a dose of 18 grams of coffee, ground at a 9 on our EKS43, we brewed it up with 300 grams of water poured across three pulses—a 50 gram bloom pulse, a 150 gram second pulse at 0:40, and a 100 gram pulse at 1:40. It finished in 3:57 with a TDS of 1.38, and an extraction percentage of 19.44. This brew was our first and elicited a series of “yums” and “mmms”. Our extraction calculator assured us it would be a good brew, and it wasssss. There were sweet citrus and strawberry notes, smooth and rich cocoa and tea flavors, and marmalade, marshmallow, and caramel sweetnesses. This brew was sweet, layered, and balanced, though it did not highlight the florality that showed up in other brews.

Swapping out the V60 for the Wave, and using the same recipe as above, we received a brew in 4:04 with a TDS of 1.51 and an extraction percentage of 21.89. This brew was sweet, though featured a soft astringency, a heightened citrus acidity, but floral jasmine and lemongrass notes. This brew’s mouthfeel was less silky, but it had a lot of pleasurable qualities.

This coffee offers notes we typically encounter in more delicate coffees, and it can also be brewed to have a rich body and balance. It will likely require a smaller dose or coarser grind size when brewed on a flat bottom brewer to avoid over-extraction, but presented as an easy coffee to dial towards deliciousness on our pour over bar.

Espresso

Espresso Analysis by MJ Smith

I’ve always had a soft spot for Guatemalan coffees, and this one was no exception! Every shot I tasted had something I could enjoy that kept me coming back for more, which is great, aside from the fact that I’m now wildly overcaffeinated while writing this. While of course each shot was slightly different than the one before, some reoccurring notes included apples, baking spice, caramels, and juicy citrus, making this the perfect espresso as we ease into cozy autumn vibes. I tried around 10 different shots and, through a rigorous process of elimination, was somehow able to sort it down to my two favorites to write about.

I started out with a lower dose of 17.5g, which pulled at 32 seconds with a 37.2g yield, and what a first impression it made! I picked up notes of apple pie, pluot, pineapple, pumpkin spice, dried apricot, chocolate covered caramels, and orange zest. I shared some with the rest of the barista team, and they picked up notes of cinnamon, toasted almond, macadamia, nutmeg, strawberry lemonade, florals, plum, and citrus.

Next up, I raised the dose to 18.5g but kept the yield and time basically the same, pulling at 37.4g and 32 seconds. This was my favorite shot of the bunch! I shared some with Charlie, who said that he’s been brewing this coffee on his moka pot at home, and he agreed that this makes for a delicious espresso. I picked up notes of burnt caramel sauce, orange, chocolate, pink lady apple, florals, and cheesecake with graham cracker crust. While perfectly delicious on its own, I think this recipe would also work perfectly for milk-based drinks.

Long story short, this coffee makes for a delicious espresso that I would be more than happy sipping on all season long! I tried shots of all different doses and yields, all of which were tasty, but my favorites had medium yields and slightly slower pull times. Hope you enjoy it as much as we do!