Finca El Limonar (‘The Lemontree’) extends over 123 hectares, and is located close to the Mexican border in Guatemala’s mountainous Huehuetenango region and next door to the famous El Injerto farm.
Finca El Limonar first came into existence towards the middle of last century, when the two brothers from the Aguirre family inherited their father’s coffee estate and split it in two. Rogelio Aguirre took over the land that became Finca El Limonar. The farm is now owned and managed by his widow, Rosa María Ovalle Mont, whose main goal is to produce a quality cup under conditions that are environmentally sustainable.
The farm is planted with Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai varietals, chosen to balance quality and yield. Every year the farm raises some 15,000 new seedlings in it nursery to replenish existing fields or to create new plantations. In the higher areas of the farm native shade trees have been planted to give the coffee around 60% shade.
The farm avoids using chemical herbicides where possible, instead weeds are removed by hand using a machete. Finca El Limonar has a wet mill on site, where treatment tanks are used to purify and recycle the waste water in order to avoid polluting the many local rivers and streams. Left over coffee pulp is then recycled as a fertilizer for young plants.
Welcome to my Table, here in the corner of this cafe. Today we’re sipping the Guatemala Finca El Limonar, from Tinker Coffee in Indianapolis, Indiana. Feel free to pull up a chair.
THEDETAILS:
origin: El Injerto, Huehuetenango, Guatemala
farm: Finca El Limonar
producer(s): Rosa María Ovalle Mont
assocation: N/A
elevation: 2000 meters above sea level
cultivars: Bourbon, Catuai, Caturra
process: fully washed, patio dried
CUPPINGNOTES
Opening the bag of Finca El Limonar fills my nostrils with sweet, fragrant, and perfumed scents of cherry and orange blossoms, citrus, red berries, honey, and pistachio.
Diving into the cup, the coffee is medium-bodied and features a rich, buttery mouthfeel. My first few sips greet my palate with creamy dulce de leche and amaretto. I’m also tasting sweet and tart flavors of honey, raspberry, and pistachio in the finish. As it cools off, the cup explodes with flavor as further fruit flavors that jump all over my tongue: white grape, peach, nectarine, lime, apricot, and apple while the cherry blossom aromatics in the aroma show up again here, tickling the roof of the mouth and sides of the tongue.
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Andrew is a husband, father, dog lover, craft beverage enthusiast, content creator, and niche market Internet celebrity. Formerly of A Table in the Corner of the Cafe and The Pulitzer Project and contributor to Barista Magazine and Mental Floss, he’s been writing on the Internet for years.