Guatemala Maria Mendoza

This coffee comes to us from Maria Mendoza of the CODECH Cooperative in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. CODECH is a Fair Trade, Organic cooperative comprised of over 600 active producers. In 2012, Atlas Importers helped them organize their very first internal cupping competition, which is now an annual event. Evans Brothers was first invited to this event in 2019 as a quality judge in the competition, and we have been participating ever since.

Maria Mendoza took 1st place in this year's competition with this 10-bag lot from her farm! This coffee was a favorite among all the roasters who judged the competition, earning its 1st place honors. Rather than compete for who got the top lot, we decided to split it so we could share it with our customers. Tasting notes from Maria’s coffee in the competition were fun, wild, and broke the mold of the expected Huehuetenango profile of blackberry, chocolate, and praline.

In the cup, this coffee is very vibrant, with sweet blood orange, passionfruit, nectarine, watermelon candy, and Fruity Pebbles lingering in the finish. A distinct creamy sweetness ties this coffee together, giving you a cup you won't want to put down. Some of our favorite tasting notes for this coffee were "sparkly," "clear gummy worm," "hella floral," "pink," "watermelon" (mentioned at least twice), and "washed Ethiopia" (also mentioned at least twice).

When a coffee stands out like this one and inspires such exciting tasting notes, we can’t help but share as many of them as possible. In fact, Daniel insisted that we do just that!