Guatemala. Fedecocagua Cooperative

Tasting notes: Chocolate, Toffee & Green Apple

Country: Guatemala 

Growers: Fedecocagua Cooperative

Altitude: 1100 - 1750m

Varietals: Pache, Caturra

Process: Fully Washed

Roast: Medium light (Agtron 63)

SCA Cupping Score: 84

Established in 1969, FEDECOCAGUA is a cooperative organisation with 20,000 members. Seventy percent of co-op members are members of indigenous groups from various regions of Guatemala, including Huehuetenango, Cobán, Verapaces, Retalhuleu, San Marcos, and Zacapa. The organisation is made up of over 150 individual co-operatives with an average smallholding size of 1.32 hectares that supply the coffee, and they are the main exporter of coffee from Guatemala.
Pache is a varietal best adapted to elevations above 1,200 meters and in regions with less than 2,500 millimeters of rainfall per year areas. The variety was discovered in 1949 in Guatemala on the Brito farm in Santa Cruz Naranjo, Santa Rosa, and is a mutation of the Typica family. It is a dwarf size, the same as Caturra, which allows for easier picking and denser planting, though Caturra has its origins in the Catimor branch of varietals,
stemming from the cross between Hybrido de Timor and Caturra.