San Lorenzo X

Finca San Lorenzo sits among the hills of Cobán in Guatemala's Alta Verapaz department. The farm is run by third-generation producer Luis “Wicho” Valdés, whose family has been growing coffee in the region since the 1960s. Wicho's father purchased San Lorenzo in the 1980s, expanding the family's coffee production alongside nearby Finca Santa Isabel. Today the two farms are managed together, with coffee from San Lorenzo processed at the family's Santa Isabel mill. Cobán is unusually cool, wet and humid for a coffee-producing region. Frequent rain and the light mist locally known as chipi chipi create a lush cloud-forest environment, but also make harvesting and drying coffee a constant exercise in adaptation. San Lorenzo grows a mix of Caturra, Catuaí, Bourbon, Sachimor, Obata and Tupí across its varied terrain. Rather than separating every part of the harvest by variety or farm block, individual day lots are tasted and grouped by their cup character. For us, it's a great way of looking at a farm. Instead of asking one variety or plot to define San Lorenzo, these lots show the different flavour profiles Wicho and his team can find across a much larger harvest.