By: Artis H. – Guestblogger from Antigua
In Guatemala, there is no escaping coffee. The smell of it, dark and rich and freshly brewed, drifts from open café windows everywhere. At Atitlan, workers collected the ripe beans in mounds along the banks of the lake. After two days, my throat ached from the heaviness of their sweet perfume. Out of town, leafy green coffee plants flank the roadways; I can just make out the red berries as we speed past.
On an afternoon activity organized by my language school, we visited the Azotea coffee plantation. It was the first time I had the chance to see the plants up-close, and I was surprised when our tour guide handed me a ripe berry to taste. The skin was bright red and firm, and when I popped it in my mouth, the fleshy part inside tasted mild and sweet.
The guide led our group through the coffee museum then out onto the grounds of the plantation. Coffee beans stretched in every direction, spread to dry beneath the blue sky. At this stage, the beans, stripped of their red outer skin, were yellow, in what is called café doro (golden coffee).
We wound through the fields of coffee plants, where tall shade trees protected the delicate foliage beneath. The Azotea plantation uses organic growing techniques and coffee beans grown from grafted Arabica and Robusto plants. Each plant yields 40 cups of coffee. In the roasting room, I again had a chance to taste a coffee bean, this time after the fermenting, drying, and roasting process. The bean was small and dark, and it crunched between my teeth. It had the familiar flavor of roasted coffee, offset by a dry bitterness. I grimaced, wishing for a cream and sugar chaser.
After the tour, the guide offered us hot cups of coffee brewed from the estate's harvest. It was served Guatemalan style: very strong and very sweet. I took a tentative first sip. It was a powerful brew with complex, rich flavors and a hint of acidity they say comes from the volcanic soil. The second sip was even better than the first. The guide announced that Guatemalan coffee ranks third in the world for flavor, and as I drained my cup, I understood why.
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