We Source All of Our Coffees; We Are True Coffee HUNTERS
Guatemalan SHB Ceylan (Rainforest Alliance Certification)
Tucked away in the Atitlan region of central Guatemala, the Echeverria family has been producing and processing exceptional quality coffees since 1870. Originally named Finca Ceylan & Colima, the name was later changed to Finca Ceylan & Anexos (annexes) as other farms became a part of it. The farm hires mostly local labor, generating jobs for people in the surrounding towns. Conscientious environmental practices are employed in and around the farm. The coffee residue from the wet mill is used as an organic fertilizer for the farm, creating a self-sufficient system.
To protect its abundant water resources, the farm maintains the river basins and the natural vegetation that grows nearby. Before disposal, the water used in the wet mill processing is filtered through oxidation tanks to prevent contamination of the nearby rivers. Finca Ceylan has a natural forest reserve that is protected - hunting and fishing are prohibited - to conserve different species of trees, plants, and wildlife in the ecosystem. The farm has qualified for organic certification and is also bird-friendly certified by the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. The farm’s employees and their families are provided with housing, drinkable water, and educational benefits. The cultivation of alternative crops such as cardamom, macadamia nuts, bananas, and plantains also helps to provide for the well-being of the farm families.
The Ceylan farm is located in Guatemala’s Atitlan region. Atitlan coffees tend to be more mild than the Huehuetenango coffees, but no less tasty. Creamy chocolate, nice complexity to the body, some orange and floral accents contributing to Guatemalan coffee’s reputation as the most complex of all Central & South American coffees. This Ceylan coffee has more citrus notes than the Huehuetenango and the chocolate is more of a cocoa than a milk chocolate as found in the Huehue’s.
Cupping Notes: Chocolate, sweet vanilla aroma, citrus tones and a smooth body with a floral finish.
Altitude: 3,500-5,000 Feet (1,066 - 1,24 Meters)
Varietal: Bourbon, Typica, Mundo Novo
Process: Fully Washed
Drying: Sun-dried on patios.
I can assure that you will never find a company so dedicated to bringing you the finest & freshest coffees from all over the world.
Enjoy,
Darling & Family
Taste Our Passion In Every Sip !
This coffee is roasted to medium, to protect its natural flavor.
Blue Macaw Coffee Roasters A Small Family Owned & Operated Business:
My name is Darling, I’m writing to thank you for purchasing our coffee and congratulate you on your choice of coffee roasters. We are a family owned and operated business; we take great pride in our coffees. I grew up in the coffee producing region of Nicaragua. As a small child I remember helping my father pick coffee for the local co-operative. I started learning about coffee when I was 4 years old when my dad took me to work with him. I learned how to spot the attributes of a high quality coffee bean as a young child. I now go to most of the countries we source our coffees from as our companies coffee buyer.
Our roast master (my husband) learned the art of roasting coffee in Costa Rica for six years where he studied to master coffee roasting. Blue Macaw Coffee Roasters combines old world coffee roasting techniques that he learned while studying the art of coffee roasting for 6 long years. After returning to America we opened Blue Macaw Coffee using the experience he gained while roasting in Costa Rica & my knowledge of what to look for in a high quality coffee bean from childhood. We use all this knowledge along with the high tech digital roasting technologies of today’s small batch roasters. Together we bring you the finest roasted coffees available. I’m sure you will find each of our coffees are the finest quality money can buy.
Our Roasting Process
Roasting coffee is considered an art & is a process of understanding the physical & chemical property changes known as “Pyrolisis” this is the chemical reaction & change of composition that accrues during the roasting process. Green coffee beans react to certain temperatures & durations of exposure to heat. This roasting process changes the chemical composition causing a caramelization of the coffee beans to occur. Developing these chemical compounds will greatly impact the coffees taste, aroma, sweetness, acidity & body of a coffee.
Small Batch Roasting
To better understand the benefits of roasting in small batches is very simple. We use 3 Probat 12 kilo roasters; these roasters are custom built for us in Germany. By greatly reducing the batch size in each roaster we can control the coffees inner core temperature & therefor have more control over the chemical changes our coffee beans will go through while being roasted.
Roasted Each Morning & Shipped Each Afternoon
Each morning we figure out how much of which coffees we need & then go to work roasting that coffee in our small batch roasters to give it an amazing quality & taste. We only roast what we need for that business day. By doing this you’re receiving a coffee that is always roasted to its peak of freshness. Unlike our competitors we don’t have storage shelves that our coffees sit on for days or even weeks waiting to be sold. Considering the short life spam of truly excellent coffee we fell this is a better approach then simply giving you a discount on let’s say 5 pound which could take months to drink.
Advantage Over Our Competitors
Most roasting companies use 50 to 100 kilo roasters.
Roasting at these weights the outer temperatures of the drum & the center temperature of the drum are always going to be off by about 30 degrees. This might not sound so terrible unless you understand that just a temperature difference of 5 or 10 degrees can change the “Pyrolisis” which in turn would change the chemical reaction & change of composition inside the coffee bean. This drastic change will greatly impact the coffees taste, aroma, sweetness, acidity & body of a coffee.
So you ask yourself then why do they use these bigger roasters, good question. It is purely a business decision to go with volume instead of quality. These big roasters can produce 400 to 800 pounds of coffee in less than 2 hours. That’s great if you just want to move some weight & don’t really care about its quality.
I can assure that you will never find a company so dedicated to bringing you the finest & freshest coffees from all over the world.
Enjoy,
Darling & Family
Taste Our Passion In Every Sip !