COE Award-winning Manor in Guatemala-ideal Manor Concepcion Pixcaya only grows bourbon coffee

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Eight years ago, I was attracted by the delicate taste of the ideal manor if it tastes like syrup! Over the years, her stable and superb quality has amazed many people. in particular, the mysterious and heroic style of the manor owner has forced me to look forward to meeting her. Although the cup has tested her beans for many years, it is a pity that several contacts have been unable to be interviewed because of the absence of the host. I finally decided to take a deep trip to the manor in 2013.

The ideal Manor Finca Concepcion, whose full name is Concepcion Pixcaya, is located in San Juan Sacatepex, not far from the capital. The name of the manor comes from the word Virgin of Conception of the Catholic Notre Dame and the Pixcay á River that flows through the manor to bring abundant water (formed by the merger of Concepcion and Pixcay á), but after a thorough understanding of the manor management philosophy, we use the ideal and pragmatic concept of the owner to translate the meaning of the manor name into "ideal manor".

In 2013, many manors in Guatemala gave up persistence, gave in to reality, or rushed to medical treatment because of leaf rust disease, uprooting good varieties and replacing them with better disease-resistant but poor-quality varieties, and large consortia took the opportunity to persuade farmers to change their varieties, such as persuading them to give up bourbon to welcome Catimor, and so on. The panic spread to the ideal manor, but there is a completely different version of the story.

The ideal Manor was founded in 1926 by Carlos Miron Armas and Maria Munoz de Miron. Before that, it belonged to the Catholic Church and had a very beautiful Spanish building. Unfortunately, it was destroyed by the earthquake in 1976. When I visited the ideal Manor this year, the third generation of operators took me to visit the main building, which retained the Spanish architectural style of that year. At present, the estate is jointly run by Manuel Zaghi Miron and Maria Cristina Miron Cordon de Zaghi. In addition to planting 100% bourbon, there are also a large number of Cipres and pine trees, and there are logging plants and simple processing plants to increase family income.

During the visit, Maria told people to prepare coffee and talked to me for a long time in the living room, including the cause of the family growing coffee, her travel trail and why she insisted on growing only Bourbon.

She said: people, like coffee, will get sick and have the problem of old age and physical frail. just like me, if I don't go to Southeast Asia this year, I don't know when I will have a chance next time. Only by taking good care of myself will I have the strength to travel. She knew that the bourbon species had low resistance to leaf rust, but the young bourbon species were not, and could easily resist the disease and blossom and bear fruit without losing the leaves too much.

After understanding the fragile and youthful bourbon characteristics of the bourbon species, I spent hours visiting the manor and found that the old bourbon was almost completely bare. The workers uprooted the diseased trees and abandoned them, and the dead wood and roots piled up were like coffee graveyards. The scene was shocking even if seen many times! Who knows, across the ridge of another area, full of green, the whole row of coffee forest, very healthy! It was the first time I met such a strong contrast in the same manor, and it was only then that I gradually understood Maria's determination and her deep understanding of bourbon species. Although the ideal manor also suffered from leaf rust, it fought early and, as its name suggests, could adhere to its ideals, not compromise, and still cultivate bourbon species!

Manuel Zaghi is actually responsible for the farming of the manor, selecting only 100% ripe red coffee fruits, selecting them into the trough for peeling and fermentation, paying close attention to the quality of fermentation, washing after completion, spreading and drying with high scaffolding in the treatment field, and selecting better quality, a series of close quality control, so that the ideal manor has become the winning manor of the CoE competition for two consecutive years and ranked in the top 10. In addition to the treatment quality, 100% does not use chemical herbicides, 100% compost is used as the nutrient source of coffee trees, and the waste water from fermentation cleaning is recovered and treated in an exclusive storage tank to ensure environmental safety and no pollution. The ideal manor is not only a CoE award-winning manor, but also won the national afforestation environment award for the specific implementation of environmental protection and harmless planting trees over the years.

Manor information:

Country: Guatemala

Producing area: San Juan. Sacatep é quez (San Juan Sacatep é quez)

Manor name: ideal Manor, Concepcion Pixcaya

Manor area: 180 hectares

Altitude: 1875 m

Variety: bourbon Bourbon

Harvest time: March 2017

Treatment: traditional water washing and fermentation

Cup test taste

Dry fragrance: spices, maple syrup, chocolate, berries

Wet fragrance: vanilla, milk, red apple

Flavor: red currant, lime juice, vanilla, chocolate, hazelnut chocolate