Hunapu Zeladas

Info

We’re excited to welcome back a very familiar coffee for our final Guatemala release of the 2023 harvest - Hunapu! This is our eighth season purchasing coffees from this collective of producers located just outside of Antigua, Guatemala. Thanks to the community building and traceability efforts of our long-time partner, Beneficio Bella Vista, this will be our fourth season offering a smaller lot separation exclusively from members of the Zeladas family.

Hunapu is the indigenous Kʼicheʼ name given to Volcán de Agua (one of three volcanoes surrounding the city of Antigua), and serves as the title for a group of 300 smallholders that live around the base of the volcano and deliver coffee cherry to Bella Vista. Producers in this group have been working with Bella Vista now for years, participating in frequent outreach programs on topics like plant nutrition, tissue management, and pest/disease control. The combination of educational programs coupled with access to a team of agronomists and cupping feedback have all played major roles in why coffee from Hunapu seems to taste better and better with each passing year.

On our last trip to Antigua, we had the pleasure of visiting some of the Hunapu farms with Bella Vista’s newest team member at the time - Fidel.  Don Fidel worked with Guatemala’s National Coffee Association (ANACAFE) his entire life as an agronomist, and now his sole focus is on the Hunapu project.  Fidel is the point person for Hunapu producers, handling most communication and arranging training seminars.  Additionally, a big focus the past few seasons has been placed on increased transparency with the group.  Fidel has created a system to begin mapping the exact location and details of each farm scattered alongside Volcán de Agua.  These efforts have paved the way for us to now continue purchasing this lot from the Zeladas family each year. 

Hunapu Zeladas is always a very structured and comforting coffee. Balanced fruit flavors, like orange zest and apple pie, are rounded and tethered by sweeter flavors like brown sugar, baking spices, and chocolate. It’s no surprise this is one of our favorite daily drinkers! We’re tasting candied orange, apple butter, cinnamon roll, vanilla, caramel, brown sugar, nougat, toffee, praline, baking spices, chocolate.

Relationship 

We purchase the majority of our Guatemalan coffees each season with the help of fourth generation coffee producer and leader in the Antigua coffee community, Luis Pedro Zelaya Zamora (LPZZ), and the incredible team at Beneficio Bella Vista.  This marks our eighth consecutive year sourcing Guatemala coffee with Bella Vista.  Through visiting each season and investing in these relationships, we’ve been able to explore many of their offerings, steadily grow our volume, focus on specific groups to consistently purchase from, and make many friends along the way. 

For many years, the main focus was straightforward commercial production and export at Bella Vista.  However, since the early 2000s, LPZZ grabbed the wheel and has been successfully turning the focus towards speciality coffee and small microlots. Each year they do a tremendous job of not only choosing the best lots from the best producers in the area, but also investing in necessary social outreach programs throughout Antigua. 

The coffees at Bella Vista are separated by a large list of factors including region, farm, elevation, variety, and date harvested, just to name a few. This allows us, as roasters and green buyers, to taste through many different day lots from the same farms and choose the cream of the crop.  The family has always worked with small producers in Antigua, and new relationships almost always come from introductions from families already working with the Zelaya family - ensuring close and stable partnerships. Though many of the farms are not their own, they are supported and bolstered by the family’s connections to US and international coffee roasters. Access to these specialty focused markets means that Bella Vista can select the best lots from area producers and pay premiums based on quality.  For us, and for you, this means some of the consistently best coffees out of Guatemala. 

Processing

Bella Vista is both a wet and dry mill, so they purchase coffee in cherry and parchment form depending on the specific arrangement.  They handle pulping, fermentation, drying, milling, and export preparation. LPZZ also runs the export company, Zelcafe, which directly handles all exporting of coffees going through Bella Vista. We’re working with Atlantic Specialty Coffee to  assist with importing logistics into the US.

Hunapu coffees are purchased in cherry form, so all processing takes place at Bella Vista. Our specific lot this season was dried on raised beds in Bella Vista’s greenhouses drying structures.  Mesh netting allows ample airflow around the coffee seeds, while opaque plastic coverings block the harsh sunlight. Coffees generally dry slower and more gently in this style, which equates to a more stable seed structure. This all leads to better tasting coffee over an extended period of time before signs of aging begin to show.

Brewing

Hunapu Zeladas is a straightforward coffee that benefits from relatively tighter grind sizes. Aim for a brew ratio around the 1:15 - 1:16 (coffee:water) range to accentuate the big bod this coffee has to offer. The ideal brew should have a dense chocolate sweetness with a balanced fruited acidity like apple butter. 

If your coffee tastes overly nutty, slightly sour, and the mouthfeel is thin or watery - like boiled peanuts - try grinding finer. 

If your coffee tastes bitter, aggressive, and drying - like an intense dark chocolate - try grinding coarser.