Coffea Diversa x Finca Gascón - Guatemala (Limited Edition)

Juicy and complex. Tasting tropical like papaya, citrus, and candy. Winey with a long aftertaste.

Origin: Guatemala
Region: Suchitan Volcano
Producer: Coffea Diversa x Finca Gascón
Elevation: 1650 masl
Variety: Sudan Rume
Process: 72 hours lactic natural  

The cherries are harvest at 20+ brix. Then the coffee is sent from Jutiapa to Antigua to process to Finca Gascón. Felipe Contreras from Finca Gascón then processes it on a 1,000 liter inox tank, and inoculates the fermentation with lactic bacteria isolated from the same cherry. The inox tank is closed to create an anaerobic environment. It then ferments for 72 hours and sun dries as natural for 30 days. 

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Coffea diversa Suchitan is a collaborative effort undertaken by Jose Padilla and Gonzalo Hernandez.
Some years ago, these two coffee friends decided to take some seed from the original Coffea diversa Botanical Garden located in Biolley, Costa Rica and start a new coffee garden in Suchitan, Guatemala, and that is how the Coffea Diversa Suchitan Garden was born.
Coffea diversa has the largest private coffee botanical variants collection in the world with about 850 specimens (many of them are not producing yet). Currently they produce micro-lots of about 25 different coffee botanical variants.
In a conventional flower garden in which you find many types of plants producing many different types of flowers, in Coffea diversa Garden you will find many different types of rare coffee botanical variants, that’s why they identify themselves as a coffee garden and not a coffee farm.

Almost all of the planted arabica coffee varieties grown in the world today are genetically originated from the C. arabica Typica and C. arabica Bourbon.

It is because of this that the genetic composition of almost all of the arabica coffee grown all over the world has almost no differentiation.

The differences in tastes are generated by the microclimates and geographic conditions where the coffee is grown but not because of the genetic composition of the coffee plant.

The genetic uniformity within these populations is further enhanced by the predominantly self-pollinating nature of Coffea arabica.

Coffea diversa follows the opposite approach, they fix the terroir and plant small plots of different botanical variants in that terroir, so the differences in taste profiles are because of the genetics and not because of the terroir.

They also believe that their approach of coffee genetic diversity is the ideal for coffee growing sustainability as you don’t have a genetically uniform population like you would have in a mono-varietal plantation which is more susceptible to pests and diseases.

Coffea diversa has pioneered the coffee garden botanical approach to coffee cultivation in which aspect it remains unique in the world.

Mr. Padilla and Mr. Hernandez looked at several coffee regions in Guatemala and concluded that the region with the best conditions to grow outstanding quality coffee was the micro-region of Suchitan, in the eastern side of Guatemala.

Felipe Contreras from Finca Gascón, is one of the most widely know Guatemalan producers for his biodynamic practices and excellent processing, very different to the typical washed processing found in Guatemala. 

Felipe Contreras focuses on how controlled fermentation can enhance already excellent coffee. He is one of the most passionate and exciting producers we know, and the collaboration between Coffea Diversa and Finca Gascón is some of the most excellent coming out of Guatemala at the moment.