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Beans: Mini Granja Dilma, Catuai, Natural, Marcala, Honduras.
Shop: Varietals Coffee, Webshop, Enkhuizen, The Netherlands
Maria Dolorez Zelaya: Background information.
Maria Dolorez Zelaya works with her whole family on the coffee production since more than 25 years, with an organic mode of production. Being coffee producers for more than 3 generations, the Zelaya family cultivates 4 hectares of coffee in Musula, in the region of Marcala (La Paz County). The coffees are processed on site and sun-dried on cemented areas. Maria Dolorez, her husband and their 5 children work together on the farm. In order to economically help her family, she decided a few years ago to specialise herself in all the areas that would help her family. Therefore she started training classes with COMSA, the cooperative locally implemented and processing organic coffees.
The COMSA organization, located in the region of Montecillos, produces certified “Marcala” coffees, which own a Denomination of Origin (4th of Latin America and 1st of Central America) since 2005. Marcala is a town located in La Paz County, in the south-west of Honduras. The certified coffee must be produced at more than 1100m of altitude in one of the 19 referenced towns, and obtain more than 80 points.
A few years ago, Marcala used to own a big cooperative that gathered many small producers which, after it’s breaking, left all the members without mill. This is why about sixty producers decided to get together to form the private society COMSA (Café Orgánico Marcala). Today, it is more than 700 producers constituting this society with a cooperation spirit, in which all employees are producers. They all follow cupping and biological agriculture classes. In addition, the cooperative subsidises the community children’s education. Besides producing organic coffees, they really highlight the organic agriculture model and the consumption of organic food. There is even a market of organic products each week in Marcala.
Varietals Coffee: Opening the package.
The Varietals Coffee package has a luxurious look it with the blue colour and golden writings. There is a degassing valve and zip-lock to keep the coffee as fresh as possible. On the front of the package you will find a lot of information on the coffee: variety, process, region, altitude, trade type and thorough tasting notes. I especially love the tasting notes since this will help the consumer to ‘discover’ flavours and aroma’s that might have eluded them otherwise.
On the back of the package there is a fun piece of information. Varietals Coffee explains the difference between ‘Variety’ and ‘Varietal’ and how one can use it in conversations, blogs etc. There is also some information on the social media outlets of the roastery.
When opening the package, there is a pungent winey aroma coming out. After that first burst you will find fruits and a milky chocolate aroma as well. The Catuai bean is crispy and has a soft bitter/sour flavour to it when you eat one. After that initial bitter/sour flavour, you will find cocoa and afterwards a hint of red wine in the background. The roast looks even and there are no defects to be found inside the package.
Mini Granja Dilma: The Tasting.
I review this coffee on my Rocket Giotto Evoluzione R and grind the coffee on my Fiorenzato F64 EVO (grind size one dash before the number 2 on the dial). The sweet spot for this coffee to me was at 18.3 grams exact. At this dosage I found all the flavours and aroma’s perfectly balanced.
When you ground the coffee there is a fruity and winey aroma coming off of the grounds. These aroma’s are full on and will make your room smell after freshly ground coffee. After I brewed the coffee there were aroma’s of fruits which later could best be described as berries and a hint of strawberry.
When you take a sip, the first thing you will notice is how this coffee carries a red wine note and mouthfeel. This is a bit like a full bodied burgundy wine without any tannins. Soon after the fruity flavours will emerge with the strawberry up front. The mix of both strawberry and blueberry gives a mellow and soft tasting flavour. After swallowing you will notice how at first the strawberry comes up. When the coffee cools down a little, a big surprise lurks around the corner. When drinking this coffee while it cooled down a little, there will be a full sweet and delicious blueberry bubblegum flavour popping up. It surprised me that this sweetness popped up after swallowing the brew! After this flavour subsides a milky chocolate flavour takes over and stay around for a while.
As a Lungo this coffee gets even better. The diluted espresso now gives off better aroma’s of blueberry and strawberry as well as these flavours being in the cup right from the start. The winey aspect tones down a little though.
As a Latte based drink, the Mini Granja Dilma is just excellent. There is no bitterness in the aftertaste and the fruity notes of this coffee make it a joy to drink as a Flat White or Cappuccino. The sweetness of the frothed milk in combination with the strawberry and blueberry creates a well suited summer brew.
Mini Granja Dilma: The Verdict.
Varietals Coffee did a great job roasting the Mini Granja Dilma from Maria Dolorez Zelaya. The natural washing process gives this coffee a lot of fruitiness that you would normally expect to find in a Etiopian coffee.
The coffee is balanced in terms of flavours and aroma’s yet manages to highlight each flavour separately during drinking.
The Mini Granja Dilma is also very suitable as a latte based drink because of these flavours. A soft, sweet, fruity latte based drink is waiting for you!
I usually drink my coffee as an espresso but with this coffee I tended to go for a lungo since it highlighted the fruity flavours even more.
Great job!
I have placed a courtesy link here so you can visit the webpage for this coffee straight away. This a non-paid link and is placed to help out this roaster.