Guatemala: Lucia Solis Education Lot
Traceability: Rueda Specialty Coffee Farms, Antigua
Process: Yeast-inoculated Washed
Elevation: 4,920 ft (1500 masl)
Notes: Green Grape, Almond, White Flowers
Method: Drip (1:15), Espresso, Cold Brew
Net weight: 12 ounces/340 grams
Info: If you’re a specialty coffee lover that came of age sometime before the COVID years, you may remember a time when there were really only a small handful of categories of coffee processes — call them what you’d like, but it basically boiled down to washed and natural processes.
Fast forward a few years, and anaerobic (low-oxygen) lots were the scene. Fruited co-ferments followed, and all still persist in some way or another. As an industry, especially what is collectively called “Specialty Coffee”, we have been on a search for new methods, from farm to roastery to cafés, that create positive experiences for drinkers, perceived quality for the price for roasters, and increased overall share of the profit margin for producers. It’s a difficult task and a fine line to walk, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying.
Enter Lucia Solis. Many of the world’s top roasters are already familiar with Lucia’s story, that of a Guatemala-born, University of California-educated wine specialist who made the jump into coffee after being hired by a wine yeast distributor to investigate some potential applications in Central America.
After nearly a decade in coffee as a traveling consultant for producers across the world, Lucia settled in Guatemala a few years ago and began working with local coffee producers to help create replicable and repeatable protocols to “add value instead of (simply) reducing risk.”
In conjunction with Rueda Specialty Coffee Farms in Antigua, Lucia developed a protocol with a commercial yeast that helped create a stable and consistent lot of 18 different day lots harvested from December 2023 to March 2024 from what was a very non-uniform harvest season overall. This Caturra and H1 blend lot was harvest at an average of 1500 masl, inoculated, pulped and patio dried resulting in a classic “coffee” profile, medium bodied with structured acidity. Don't think of this coffee as a heavyweight punch-out or a huge wine-bomb; Lucia and team were not looking to change the flavors of the coffee through fermentation but rather to expand the window of which coffees could be included as specialty. The yeast allowed them to include under and overripe coffees which traditionally might not make the cut, which is a key teaching moment repeated time and time again on Lucia’s “Making Coffee” podcast and at her in-person Fermentation Training Camps.
And no — Lucia is not becoming a producer! While her team and she had a heavy hand in creating these lots, this a group effort to help spearhead new paths in the industry that is seeing increasing challenges at the very farms that used to produce coffee with ease. In fact, the purpose of this lot is to help fund these Fermentation Training Camps; hosting events in Guatemala to teach local coffee producers how to use microbiology to deal with the challenges of the changing climate, and maintain consistent cup profiles for many years ahead.
We only have one bag (150 lbs) of this coffee: It is special and will move very quickly.This lot is a perfect way to highlight and educate customers on how to combat a changing landscape with science and microbiology while enjoying a truly fantastic drinking experience.
Traceability: Rueda Specialty Coffee Farms, Antigua
Process: Yeast-inoculated Washed
Elevation: 4,920 ft (1500 masl)
Notes: Green Grape, Almond, White Flowers
Method: Drip (1:15), Espresso, Cold Brew
Net weight: 12 ounces/340 grams
Info: If you’re a specialty coffee lover that came of age sometime before the COVID years, you may remember a time when there were really only a small handful of categories of coffee processes — call them what you’d like, but it basically boiled down to washed and natural processes.
Fast forward a few years, and anaerobic (low-oxygen) lots were the scene. Fruited co-ferments followed, and all still persist in some way or another. As an industry, especially what is collectively called “Specialty Coffee”, we have been on a search for new methods, from farm to roastery to cafés, that create positive experiences for drinkers, perceived quality for the price for roasters, and increased overall share of the profit margin for producers. It’s a difficult task and a fine line to walk, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying.
Enter Lucia Solis. Many of the world’s top roasters are already familiar with Lucia’s story, that of a Guatemala-born, University of California-educated wine specialist who made the jump into coffee after being hired by a wine yeast distributor to investigate some potential applications in Central America.
After nearly a decade in coffee as a traveling consultant for producers across the world, Lucia settled in Guatemala a few years ago and began working with local coffee producers to help create replicable and repeatable protocols to “add value instead of (simply) reducing risk.”
In conjunction with Rueda Specialty Coffee Farms in Antigua, Lucia developed a protocol with a commercial yeast that helped create a stable and consistent lot of 18 different day lots harvested from December 2023 to March 2024 from what was a very non-uniform harvest season overall. This Caturra and H1 blend lot was harvest at an average of 1500 masl, inoculated, pulped and patio dried resulting in a classic “coffee” profile, medium bodied with structured acidity. Don't think of this coffee as a heavyweight punch-out or a huge wine-bomb; Lucia and team were not looking to change the flavors of the coffee through fermentation but rather to expand the window of which coffees could be included as specialty. The yeast allowed them to include under and overripe coffees which traditionally might not make the cut, which is a key teaching moment repeated time and time again on Lucia’s “Making Coffee” podcast and at her in-person Fermentation Training Camps.
And no — Lucia is not becoming a producer! While her team and she had a heavy hand in creating these lots, this a group effort to help spearhead new paths in the industry that is seeing increasing challenges at the very farms that used to produce coffee with ease. In fact, the purpose of this lot is to help fund these Fermentation Training Camps; hosting events in Guatemala to teach local coffee producers how to use microbiology to deal with the challenges of the changing climate, and maintain consistent cup profiles for many years ahead.
We only have one bag (150 lbs) of this coffee: It is special and will move very quickly.This lot is a perfect way to highlight and educate customers on how to combat a changing landscape with science and microbiology while enjoying a truly fantastic drinking experience.
Traceability: Rueda Specialty Coffee Farms, Antigua
Process: Yeast-inoculated Washed
Elevation: 4,920 ft (1500 masl)
Notes: Green Grape, Almond, White Flowers
Method: Drip (1:15), Espresso, Cold Brew
Net weight: 12 ounces/340 grams
Info: If you’re a specialty coffee lover that came of age sometime before the COVID years, you may remember a time when there were really only a small handful of categories of coffee processes — call them what you’d like, but it basically boiled down to washed and natural processes.
Fast forward a few years, and anaerobic (low-oxygen) lots were the scene. Fruited co-ferments followed, and all still persist in some way or another. As an industry, especially what is collectively called “Specialty Coffee”, we have been on a search for new methods, from farm to roastery to cafés, that create positive experiences for drinkers, perceived quality for the price for roasters, and increased overall share of the profit margin for producers. It’s a difficult task and a fine line to walk, but that hasn’t stopped people from trying.
Enter Lucia Solis. Many of the world’s top roasters are already familiar with Lucia’s story, that of a Guatemala-born, University of California-educated wine specialist who made the jump into coffee after being hired by a wine yeast distributor to investigate some potential applications in Central America.
After nearly a decade in coffee as a traveling consultant for producers across the world, Lucia settled in Guatemala a few years ago and began working with local coffee producers to help create replicable and repeatable protocols to “add value instead of (simply) reducing risk.”
In conjunction with Rueda Specialty Coffee Farms in Antigua, Lucia developed a protocol with a commercial yeast that helped create a stable and consistent lot of 18 different day lots harvested from December 2023 to March 2024 from what was a very non-uniform harvest season overall. This Caturra and H1 blend lot was harvest at an average of 1500 masl, inoculated, pulped and patio dried resulting in a classic “coffee” profile, medium bodied with structured acidity. Don't think of this coffee as a heavyweight punch-out or a huge wine-bomb; Lucia and team were not looking to change the flavors of the coffee through fermentation but rather to expand the window of which coffees could be included as specialty. The yeast allowed them to include under and overripe coffees which traditionally might not make the cut, which is a key teaching moment repeated time and time again on Lucia’s “Making Coffee” podcast and at her in-person Fermentation Training Camps.
And no — Lucia is not becoming a producer! While her team and she had a heavy hand in creating these lots, this a group effort to help spearhead new paths in the industry that is seeing increasing challenges at the very farms that used to produce coffee with ease. In fact, the purpose of this lot is to help fund these Fermentation Training Camps; hosting events in Guatemala to teach local coffee producers how to use microbiology to deal with the challenges of the changing climate, and maintain consistent cup profiles for many years ahead.
We only have one bag (150 lbs) of this coffee: It is special and will move very quickly.This lot is a perfect way to highlight and educate customers on how to combat a changing landscape with science and microbiology while enjoying a truly fantastic drinking experience.
All coffee is roasted to order every Monday and shipped the following day through USPS priority mail unless otherwise specified. Orders received on Monday will be processed the following Monday.
Net weight: 12 ounces (340 grams) / 5 lbs (2.27 kg)