Guatemala - Las Moritas (2025)

Finca Las Moritas was established in 1988 when Don Higinio and Doña Aura purchased their first plot of land, naming it San José Las Moritas. The farm is located in the department of El Progreso and within the broader region known as the Sierra de las Minas, a rugged mountain range containing everything from desert scrublands to montane cloud forests. Today Las Moritas occupies 70 hectares of land with impressive elevations reaching 1,800 meters.

The farm's 56 hectares planted with coffee contain a mix of varieties prized for their very high quality. This lot is an isolation from trees bearing yellow fruit—for years we believed they were yellow-ripening caturra, but recently we suspect they're actually a yellow-ripening catuaí (itself a crossing of caturra and mundo novo). The flavor profile is sweet and round, enhanced by a gentle but sparkling acidity that elevates the cup in an absolutely lovely way. Recently Las Moritas has been offering this coffee under the name "nance," a tropical fruit with a similar shape and shade of yellow.

Las Moritas sends picked coffee by truck to Antigua Guatemala for postharvest processing at Beneficio La Esperanza. Here the coffee is depulped, fermented, and washed, then transferred to a large patio where it is slowly and meticulously sun-dried. The processing and drying methodology is the design of Los Volcanes Coffee, some of the very best in the game.

This is a lovely coffee that will present well in most brewing methods, whether filter or espresso.