Moray Blend - Seasonal Espresso Blend

About the Producers

Perhaps one of the coffees and producers we were most impressed with during our first ever visit to Guaspololo in 2021 was Jesus Aguirre. Like most of the Guaspololo group, Jesus is small even as far as smallholders go with a mere 1 hectare of land, and is so new to specialty coffee production he manually depulped his entire harvest meaning that as his wife and daughters brought in the day’s cherries, Jesus cranked the metal arm for hours at a time to remove the juicy IH-90 cherries from their seeds.

This kind of commitment is no small feat – even with a total of 8 69 kilo bags representing his entire harvest - that means he would have had to depulp around 2500 kilos of cherry, and do so while also achieving a high quality cup that bursts with notes of field berries and candy store gummies. In a lot of ways, Jesus is reminiscent for us of our friend and low-key hero Jhon Jairo Gomez in San Agustin. Perched at 2000masl, Jhon also began by harvesting his tiny plot of Tabi and manually depulping it all, each consecutive sale bringing him more ability to re-invest in his farm and beneficio.

To connect with Jesus and these other smallholders in Guaspololo remains almost miraculous for us. Perched at around 1800masl in a deep crevice of the Comayagua mountain range, Jesus and his companeros have had no choice but to simply harvest their coffee and “gift it” to local buyers for nothing up until this harvest year, where the prospect of not only earning a profit from coffee but also developing recognition, knowledge, and community began to come into focus.

This lot represents a micro lot in the clearest sense of the word - both in the way it was produced only by the family but also in how it can reflect a unique flavor profile particular to them. We look forward to many more years of working with Jesus, and broadening our commitment to the Guaspololo group generally.

Jesus shared with us this message about his coffee growing journey:

“In 2015 my father inherited 1.5 hectares of farm since as a family we have only dedicated them to planting coffee and I have my farm because from a very young age I am passionate about planting coffee. Our father instilled us to always fight with love in the field of coffee, since as a family it is the area that has helped us move forward, being a coffee producer We have had a lot of difficulties because of the low prices they pay for our coffee, I feel very happy to have a buyer, since I am a small producer and all my coffee I prepare, and I want to continue growing.”

Processing

Cherries are collected at peak ripeness and then are floated before being manually depulped the same day. The seeds are then left to dry ferment in open tanks for 40 hours before being washed with spring water. The parchment is dried on raised beds for 30 days, where it is turned every half an hour until reaching 10% moisture.

Price

The FOB price for this lot was $3.75. [FOB price is the total price of the coffee up to the point of departure from the country; it includes farmgate/price paid to the grower, in-country transportation, and the cost of processing and preparation for export. It does not include the price of freight to the US, US warehousing, US customs charges, or the cost of moving coffee with the US.]

During the harvest season from January through May, the New York C price for coffee was an average of $2.29; the $ FOB price for this coffee includes a significant premium for the farmer above the C market price, which reflects the excellent quality of this coffee. After being imported to a warehouse in the consuming country, the United States, the coffee cost was $5.60/lb. The cost of the shipping from the warehouse to our roastery made our final green price $5.96.

Avg. C Price (at the time of harvest): $2.29

F.O.B Price: $3.75

Ex-Warehouse: $5.60

Final Green Price: $5.96

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