Guatemala - El Puente - Espresso Roast

Guatemala - El Puente. A beautifully expressive cup with a soft, tea-like body, gentle plum notes, and a biscuity finish.

Country: Guatemala
Region: Huehuetenango
Producer: Renardo Ovalle
Varietal: Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai
Altitude: 1,700 MASL
Process: Washed

Tasting Notes: Cherry plum, black tea, chocolate tart. 

Among Guatemala’s renowned regions, Huehuetenango stands out for its ideal growing conditions, situated in the country’s western highlands. The city benefits from high elevation and clay loam soil, ideal for cultivating coffee.

Renardo ‘Nayo’ Ovalle, agronomist and grandson of Jorge Vides, leads Finca El Puente with a focus on quality, sustainability and social development, ensuring long-term excellence in green coffee production. Finca El Puente is situated near the El Injerto River and is encompassed by the El Chalum community. Among the diverse flora on the farm are chalum, cypress, oak and eucalyptus trees, creating a 55% shade cover for the coffee plants. This lot derives its name from the blue-coloured rocks found in this part of the farm, a result of the abundant lazurite mineral in the soil.

In harvest season, coffee is handpicked, selecting cherries by colour and recording brix grade for plot selection. After a 36-hour rest period, the cherries are floated to remove impurities. Then, they undergo de-pulping, followed by classification by size and weight. After 24-30 hours in dry fermentation tanks for mucilage removal, the beans are sorted again before drying on patios. Finally, the coffee undergoes hulling, grading, classifying and sorting in preparation for export.

The Vides story began back in 1958 when Don Jorge Vides Molina founded Finca La Bolsa as a passion project. Now, the family operates six farms in Huehuetenango and owns a state-of-the-art cupping lab in Guatemala City. The family’s commitment to producing the finest quality coffee has been rewarded with numerous awards, most notably a Cup of Excellence in 2002.

Vides58 is a member of the Guatemalan chapter of the International Women’s Coffee Alliance and has implemented four community programs at La Bolsa, including a school, daycare and student grants.