Guatemala El Tesoro

This cup has a sweetness like honey and gentle white floral notes. It's a washed Geisha from La Joya, in Guatemala's Chimaltenango region, into the spotlight. It's delicate and complex, and works great as a filter coffee.

El Tesoro is part of a special project started in 2020 to explore new, harder-to-reach growing regions in Guatemala and build direct relationships with small producers there. A mobile lab, the "Laboratorio Móvil," let their QA team travel out to these remote farms to cup coffee on-site and get to know the people and places behind it — coffees that had simply gone unnoticed due to limited access and market connections, not any lack of quality.

This lot was grown by Elida Reyes Orrego in San Martín Jilotepeque, Chimaltenango, where coffee is farmed alongside staple crops like corn and beans on small plots, often under the shade of native oak trees. The region's cool, temperate climate gives its coffees a naturally vibrant, fruity character. Caravela's PECA agronomy program worked closely with producers here to help them shift from commercial-grade coffee toward specialty quality, with a number of lots — this one included — now reaching AAA grade.

Harvest & Process
Harvest runs from December to April. Cherries are hand-picked at peak ripeness and pulped the same day, then fermented for 28 to 30 hours — sometimes with a 12-hour rest in cherry before pulping. After washing, the coffee is dried on concrete or nylon patios, under sun or shade depending on the farm's setup.