La Soledad ( Filter Roasted )

COUNTRY: Guatemala

DEPARTMENT: Sacatepéquez

MUNICIPALITY: Antigua

FARM SIZE: 12.5 Hectares

ELEVATION: 1,585–1,750m above sea level 

VARIETY: Bourbon, Caturra

PROCESSING: Washed

FARM OWNER: Lucia Zelaya and Rony Asensio

AWARDS: Cup of Excellence 2009, 2012

La Soledad is a beautiful farm that sits on the slopes of Volcan de Agua in the heart of Antigua. The estate is owned by Ana Lucia Zelaya and her husband Rony Asensio. The two make a dynamic coffee duo—Ana Lucia is a fourth-generation coffee producer from a well-established and long-standing coffee producing family. Her husband, Rony, also comes from coffee-producing heritage and is a talented, passionate and meticulous farmer who works incredibly hard to produce great coffee.

La Soledad was originally part of the larger Finca Santa Clara, founded in 1908 by Lucia’s great-grandfather, Sr. Luis Pedro Aguirre Matheu. His farm was passed down through the generations until the late 1990s when the farm was finally divided between the four children of Ricardo Zelaya Aguirre. At this time, Lucia and Rony acquired a small section of the farm and called it ‘La Soledad’.

Day to day operations at La Soledad are managed by Julio Pablo Damián who has worked and lived on the farm since 2010. During the harvest, around twenty-five seasonal workers are employed to help pick the cherries. These pickers are highly skilled, and most return every year to work on the farm.

Due to varying altitude of La Soledad, the coffee cherries ripen at different times during the harvest, so Julio instructs his team of pickers to do around eight passes of the entire farm during the season to ensure only the ripest cherries are selected.

Once the perfectly ripe cherries are picked, the coffee is processed at the Zelaya’s beneficio (mill) Bella Vista in the traditional washed manner. The cherries are mechanically pulped before they’re fermented for 24 hours to remove the mucilage. The beans are then washed to remove any remaining pulp and carefully dried first on a patio for a couple of days, and then on raised beds in a greenhouse, which ensures the coffee is dried slowly and evenly.

RECOMMENDED Suitable for Filter brewing methods and French press.

 **NOTE FOR DELIVERY** An order placing BEFORE 2 PM will arrange on next day delivery. An order AFTER 2 PM will deliver on the next following days.