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Lehmus Roastery

Limited Concepcion Villatoro Guatemala

€18,90

Limited Concepcion Villatoro -kahvi - Guatemala - Lehmus Roastery
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Limited edition coffees are rare and high-quality small-batch coffees that come from all over the specialty coffee producing world.

This coffee is close and important to us, as we were able to personally select the coffee during our farm visit to Guatemala in February and sample coffees before they even made it to the brokers’ lists. From these sessions, we ended up purchasing a batch of Concepcion Villatoro family farm coffee, which is sweet, full-bodied and full of aromas: dried fruit, toffee, citrus, freshness and candy-like sweetness.

Farmer Concepcion Villatoro in his home yard in El Chalum, Huehuetenango region, Guatemala. The yard doubles as a processing station and drying area for washed coffees.

Villatoro plantations on the mountain on the right side of the picture.

Villatoro acquired the farm in 1990 and has been growing coffee ever since. The farm is located at an altitude of over 1700 meters and is spread over three different plots. We also got to visit the plantations and our coffee broker representative, who has also visited many different farms, mentioned that it was one of the most beautiful farms he had ever visited.

The coffee bushes grow on the steep mountainside and the farm also has plenty of shade plants that protect the coffee from the scorching sun. On the other hand, there are plenty of old, sturdy specimens among the coffee bushes that still produce a lot of berries – old trees are a sign that the bushes are well cared for.

 The drive to the site is along a steep path – the picture doesn't do the steepness justice, but we slowly climbed uphill!

Landscape on the plot and a view of other coffee plantations in the valley further away.

We visited the farm in February and since the harvest season had just started, we were able to taste and evaluate the first small batches. Such opportunities rarely come along, practically only on trips that coincide with the harvest and in a way that allows you to taste the coffees.

Let me explain a bit: usually, when buying coffee, the broker receives samples, i.e. small tasters of upcoming coffee batches. When these appear on the broker's lists, the roaster can order a sample (about 50-100g), test roast it themselves and assess whether it meets the roaster's needs. It can be a Limited-level premium coffee or a good, so-called basic production coffee, which is ordered in a larger batch.

A level that requires a little more cooperation and knowledge is that you can ask the broker for pre-shipment samples, which means you can taste coffees that are not yet on public lists. If you are looking for coffees in a broad range, it also helps to know which broker specializes in which country or coffees of which profile.

The next level is to actually visit the farms. The most sensible thing to do is to go during the harvest season, when you can taste the coffees directly during the harvest season, like we did, before anyone else.

It's possible to dive even deeper than this. You can either buy land and start growing coffee, or you can try to buy a share in a coffee farm and thereby influence what kind of coffees can be bought and roasted!

We ended up with a fan photo: on the left, Arttu from Lehmus Roastery, in the middle, Concepcion from Finca Los Dos Socios, and on the right, Jussi from Lehmus Roastery.

The Villatoro processing station. Few Guatemalan farmers have such a robust and multi-layered facility at their disposal. The coffee berries are poured into the basin at the top of the picture and from there they flow downwards through the mill to the water channel in the next picture.
The coffee was picked and processed in February-March. After that, the coffee moved in a larger container towards the port city, where the thin surface layer of the coffee was removed by milling, the coffee was repacked in sacks and sent to sail across the world's seas.

Once the seas are crossed and other possible challenges are overcome, the coffee batch has arrived at a port in Europe, usually in Holland, Belgium or Germany. Then the coffee is loaded back onto the ship and the journey towards Lappeenranta begins. When the coffee arrives at our place, we do some test roasting, decide what style the coffee will be roasted in, design the label, write this presentation and take pictures of the product, and press Save, change the status from Draft to Active and put the coffee out for all the people to enjoy. Easy and nice!

A small batch with aromas of dried fruit sweetness, citrus, toffee and fresh acidity. Optimal roast level, around 2.25/5.

Region of origin: Guatemala, Huehuetenango
Farm: Los Dos Socios
Grower: Concepcion Villatoro
Variety: Bourbon Arabica
Growth altitude: 1700 m
Processing: Washed

Region of origin : India, Karnataka
Farm: Ratnagiri
Varieties: Catuai
Growth altitude: 1340 m
Processing: Bioreactor fermentation for 36 hours, followed by 25 days of drying on raised beds.
Roast level: 2/5


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