Guatemala — Coffea Diversa x Finca Gascón Sudan Rume (Lactic Natural)

Tastes Like — 🍈 Papaya • 🍊 Citrus • 🍬 Candy • 🍷 Winey

DETAILS

• Producer: Coffea Diversa (Jose Padilla & Gonzalo Hernandez) x Finca Gascón (Felipe Contreras)
• Farm: Coffea Diversa Suchitan Garden / Finca Gascón
• Region: Suchitan Volcano, Jutiapa / Antigua, Guatemala
• Varietal: Sudan Rume
• Process: 72-Hour Lactic Natural
• Altitude: 1,650 MASL
• Size: 100g

INTRO

This extraordinary Limited Edition collaboration brings together two of Guatemala’s most forward-thinking coffee producers. Coffea Diversa — home to one of the world’s largest private coffee botanical collections, with around 850 specimens — grew this rare Sudan Rume in their Suchitan garden, then sent the cherries to master processor Felipe Contreras at Finca Gascón in Antigua, where they were transformed through a precision 72-hour lactic natural fermentation.

The result is juicy and complex: tropical papaya, vibrant citrus, and candy sweetness with a long, winey finish. A coffee of genuine rarity and remarkable precision, offered in limited 100g bags.

THE PRODUCER

Jose Padilla and Gonzalo Hernandez founded Coffea Diversa with a singular vision: to fix the terroir and explore genetic diversity rather than varietal uniformity. After identifying the Suchitan micro-region on Guatemala’s eastern side as ideal for growing outstanding quality, they established a coffee garden there using seed from the original Coffea Diversa Botanical Garden in Biolley, Costa Rica.

Unlike a conventional mono-varietal farm, the Coffea Diversa garden plants small plots of different botanical variants in identical terroir — meaning that taste differences arise from genetics, not geography. With around 850 specimens, Coffea Diversa holds the largest private coffee botanical variants collection in the world, currently producing microlots of about 25 different botanical variants. Their approach also enhances sustainability: genetic diversity within a population reduces susceptibility to the pests and diseases that devastate genetically uniform plantations.

Felipe Contreras at Finca Gascón is one of Guatemala’s most celebrated processors — known internationally for his biodynamic practices and mastery of controlled fermentation. The collaboration between Coffea Diversa’s rare genetics and Felipe’s processing expertise represents some of the most exciting and distinctive coffee Guatemala is producing today.

THE PROCESS

The 72-Hour Lactic Natural process involves:

• 🍒 Selective harvest — cherries are harvested at 20+ Brix, ensuring peak ripeness and sugar content
• 🧪 Lactic inoculation — Felipe inoculates a 1,000-litre inox tank with lactic bacteria isolated from the same cherry, encouraging a precise and controlled fermentation
• ❄️ Anaerobic fermentation — the sealed inox tank creates an anaerobic environment; fermentation runs for 72 hours
• ☀️ Natural drying — after fermentation, the coffee dries as a natural on raised beds for 30 days

The combination of lactic fermentation and extended natural drying creates a coffee of exceptional complexity — vibrant tropical fruit, precise acidity, candy sweetness, and a long, winey finish.

THE CUP

Juicy and complex, with a tropical character that unfolds through layers of papaya and citrus brightness before giving way to candy sweetness and a long, winey aftertaste. A rare and captivating coffee that rewards careful brewing and unhurried attention.

Flavour Notes

• 🍈 Papaya
• 🍊 Citrus
• 🍬 Candy
• 🍷 Winey