GUATEMALA Finca Santa Rita

PROCESSING: Natural
SCA SCORE: 87.25 pts

FLAVOR PROFILE: Fruity notes of nectarine and grapefruit, honey and panela sweetness, light caramel, and butter.

Rita Graciela Cohen is the owner of Finca Santa Rita, formerly known as Santa Gertrudis. She inherited the farm from her parents, who began growing coffee there around 1968, when the property was previously a dairy farm.

The first coffee variety planted on the farm was Guatemala, known for its tall stems and its ability to produce fruit high on the tree. A few years later, Isidoro and Rita—Rita Graciela's parents—continued experimenting with new varieties and planted Bourbon. They eventually added Caturra and Catuai, until approximately 90% of the farm was covered with coffee trees. Five years after they began planting coffee, they harvested their first crop. When Rita Graciela's parents passed away, she inherited the farm.

In 1968, Graciela Molina de Chinchilla gave her daughter Graciela a portion of her Santa Gertrudis farm while retaining lifetime usufruct rights. The property was originally a cattle farm, but Graciela and her husband, Isidoro Cohen, began cultivating coffee there. Following improvements and expert advice, the farm gained recognition for the quality of its coffee.

In 2001, after Isidoro's death, the farm passed to his daughter, Rita Graciela, and her husband, Fernando Castillo Ramírez. They decided to rename it Santa Rita. Despite climatic and processing challenges, they managed to maintain high quality standards and built a wet mill on the farm.