Guatemala El Socorro Maracaturra Sourcing Notes
For the last five years we have been working with producer Juan Diego De La Cerda at the farm El Socorro Y Annexo's in Palencia Guatemala. I first met Juan Diego in 2011 while I was on the juror for the Guatemala Cup of Excellence, that year his Maracaturra varietal would go on to win 2nd Place in the Competition. The Maracaturra a hybrid cross of varietals Maragogype and Caturra, it's a rare and very special varietal that truly dominates the character and flavor found in this coffee. We have also seen that the soil found a El Socorro combined with altitude rain fall shade etc, produces the best example we have seen anywhere in the world of this varietal.
Sam Schroeder helped me this year by following up in person at the farm in Guatemala. For the last three years we have strongly been suggesting to Juan Diego to dry his coffee under shade off the cement patios that coffees have traditionally been drying on in Guatemala. We did see that some experimentation of this drying technique is in practice this year.
Juan Diego understands quality coffee, he is willing to experiment in terms of selection at the farm level. Socorro also processes their own coffee using hot water which is also a very unique process I've never seen anywhere in the world.
For the last three years the only coffee we have sourced from Guatemala has been with Juan Diego at El Socorro. We believe in long term Direct relationships with our farmers, with constant feedback and troubleshooting.
Oliver Stormshak