The History, Culture, and Stories of Guatemala's Finca Filadelfia Premium Single-Origin Coffee Beans

The History and Cultural Story of Finca Filadelfia, a Premium Guatemalan Single Origin

Finca Filadelfia is also known as La Cupula Estate.

In Spanish, "La Cupula" refers to the highest point of a traditional building, the dome that crowns it.

We render it loosely as "Dome," and the name tells you where the farm sits: in the highest part of the entire Antigua growing region,

at an altitude ranging from 1,650 to 2,100 meters.

Its current owner, Mr. Roberto Dalton, is the fourth generation to run the estate.

His great-grandfather, Mr. Manuel Matheu Sinibaldi, established the farm through years of painstaking work in 1869/1870.

Four generations later, the family still farms here with the same passion and the same traditions in pursuit of high-quality coffee.

When the Cup of Excellence was held in Guatemala for the first time in 2001, the estate took second place.

What makes the area so remarkable is its natural setting, ringed by three volcanoes: Volcan Fuego (Fire Volcano), Volcan Agua (Water Volcano) and Volcan Acatenango (Acatenango Volcano).

Volcan Fuego is especially notable as one of Guatemala's three remaining active volcanoes, and it still erupts from time to time.

The ash it releases keeps replenishing the fertility of the soil, which is what makes this such an exceptional place to grow coffee.

Flavor Description

Citrus peel and pomelo honey tea in the wet aroma, with a solid body and the sweetness of dark chocolate, brown sugar, maple and almond on entry.

A bright, clear grapefruit acidity threaded through with honey sweetness.

The sweet-and-sour lift of berries and cherries, with a delicate and lingering finish.

Guatemala

Population: 15,438,000

Guatemala has done more than most countries to define its key coffee growing regions and to develop markets with distinct sales models. In my experience, coffee from this country carries consistent flavor characteristics, even if those have not yet been formally codified.

SAN MARCOS

San Marcos is the warmest and rainiest coffee growing area in Guatemala. On the slopes that face the Pacific, the rainy season arrives early, so flowering comes earlier than usual as well.

Rain heavily influences post-harvest drying, and some farms therefore combine sun-drying with mechanical drying. Agriculture is the backbone of the local economy here, and the area also produces grain, fruit, meat and wool.

Altitude: 1,300-1,800m

Harvest: December-March

Varieties: Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai

ACATENANGO

Coffee production in this region centers on the Acatenango Valley, which takes its name from the volcano. In the past, many producers sold their coffee to middlemen, who trucked the cherries to the Antigua region for processing, because Antigua coffee commanded a better reputation and a higher price. The practice has faded, since the Acatenango specialty region now produces excellent beans and is increasingly recognized in its own right, making its coffee both profitable and traceable.

Altitude: 1,300-2,000m

Harvest: December-March

Varieties: Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai

ATITLAN

In Atitlan, coffee farms cluster around Lake Atitlan. The lake sits at an altitude of 1,500 meters (4,900 feet) and has captured the imagination of writers and travelers for generations with its striking beauty. Strong winds are common in the late morning and early afternoon, and locals call them "xocomil," the wind that carries away sins.

Several private nature reserves have been established here to protect biodiversity and help prevent deforestation. Rising labor costs and competition for workers put pressure on coffee production, and urban expansion adds pressure on land use, to the point that some farmers find selling their land more profitable than continuing to grow coffee.

COBAN

Before World War II, German coffee producers controlled this region, and the growth and prosperity of that era is where the town of Coban takes its name.

The dense tropical rainforest climate creates a very humid environment, which makes drying coffee difficult. The region's geography also makes transport hard and expensive, yet remarkable coffees still emerge from here.

Altitude: 1,300-1,500m

Harvest: December-March

Varieties: Bourbon, Maragogype, Catuai, Caturra, Pache

ANTIGUA

Antigua is probably the best-known coffee producing region in Guatemala and one of the most famous in the country. It is named after Antigua City, known for its Spanish colonial architecture and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Because the market was once flooded with counterfeit beans that devalued Antigua's name, the region's coffee received origin designation in 2000 as "Authentic Antigua Coffee." That did not entirely stop the practice of importing cherries from elsewhere and processing them locally to pass off as Antigua. Even so, alongside the overpriced fakes, it is still possible to find high-quality, traceable beans genuinely grown in Antigua, and they are worth the search.

Altitude: 1,500-1,700m

Harvest: January-March

Varieties: Bourbon, Catuai, Caturra

Second Place at Guatemala's First Cup of Excellence (2001)

Country: Guatemala

Region: Antigua

Estate: La Cupula (also known as Finca Filadelfia)

Altitude: 1,650-2,100 meters

Estate History: Established in 1870

Owner: Mr. Roberto Dalton

Cultivated Varieties: Bourbon, Villa Sarchi, Catuai (this batch is Bourbon)

Processing Method: Washed/Honey/Natural (this batch is Washed)

Wine-Aged Natural Flavor

Pineapple, muskmelon, dried apricot and candied lemon peel, with Bordeaux wine and a green tea note carrying cinnamon spice. Rich in sweetness overall, with the full aroma of smoked preserved plums.

Manufacturer: FrontStreet Coffee

Ingredients: In-house roasted

Shelf Life: 30 days

Net Weight: 227g

Packaging: Bulk

Coffee Bean State: Roasted beans

Sugar Content: Sugar-free

Origin: Guatemala

Roast Level: Medium roast

Guatemala Plan del Guayabo Estate

Country: Guatemala

Region: Antigua

Estate: La Cupula Estate

Producer: Mr. Benjamin Donado

Processing Method: Wine-aged natural processing

Variety: Bourbon

Altitude: 1,675 meters

Flavor: Pineapple, brandy, white wine

Guatemala has many volcanoes, and coffee grown in volcanic soil tends to be rich and of high quality. The country's average altitude is high, which means coffee trees grow where day and night temperatures differ sharply. That harsh swing draws out the cherries' development on the tree, producing hard beans with fuller, more complex flavor.

Antigua

Rich volcanic soil, low humidity, abundant sunlight and cool nights define this growing region. The valley is ringed by three volcanoes, Agua, Fuego and Acatenango. Ash from their eruptions enriches the soil with minerals, and volcanic pumice holds moisture, which offsets Antigua's low rainfall; dense shade trees in turn protect the coffee from occasional frost damage.

Characteristics

A rich wet aroma, good balance, high sweetness and an elegant, smooth mouthfeel.

This newly arrived lot comes from La Cupula Estate in Guatemala's Antigua region. Bourbon traces back to the 18th century, when the French planted seedlings on Reunion Island in the Indian Ocean and a mutation appeared.

The resulting beans are curved and smaller, well suited to high-altitude cultivation, and they became an important line in the coffee family and a treasure of the specialty market. Bourbon's new leaves are green, and the angle between an unfruited branch and the trunk is smaller, about 45 degrees.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Finca Filadelfia's profile, built on citrus peel, honeyed body and a berry-cherry sweetness, sits squarely in the family of coffees that show fruit first and bitterness last. That is the same family FrontStreet Coffee roasts for filter, and if the brightness of this Antigua lot appeals to you, the following coffees explore the same territory from different continents. FrontStreet Coffee Yirgacheffe is the classic introduction, carrying citrus, berry and floral notes with a green-tea sweetness and an acidity that feels like ripe fruit rather than a sharp edge, which makes it forgiving for anyone new to pour-over. Ethiopia Guifei pushes fruit much further: a natural-processed lot from the Sidamo Guji region, it leads with strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit and even lychee, has very little bitterness and pours with a smooth, juice-like body, which is why drinkers who normally avoid coffee often change their minds after a cup.

For a more restrained and structured kind of fruit, Kenya Small Tomato grows at 1550-1750m from the classic SL28 and SL34 varieties and is given a 72-hour double washed fermentation. Roasted light to protect the acidity, it shows cherry tomato and smoked plum from the first sip, a bright, solid acidity like fresh-pressed juice, and a clean finish of yellow sugar and green tea. Ethiopia Kaffa Forest, finally, comes from the forest in the southwest of the country that is recognized as the birthplace of Arabica, where wild coffee grows between 1400 and 2100 meters under cloud and shade. Roasted medium-light, it opens with white florals and a bright lemon acidity, moves into sweet orange and bergamot, and finishes with a faint melon and nut sweetness and a green-tea texture. Between these four, a drinker who loved Finca Filadelfia can follow the same thread of honeyed sweetness and clean acidity much further than Guatemala alone allows.