Hacienda Carmona

Altitude:1,620-2,000m above sea level

The coffee

A washed Bourbon from Hacienda Carmona, grown on the slopes of Antigua, Guatemala. Expect butterscotch with a refined apple acidity and elegant florals.

The farm/producers

Hacienda Carmona sits on the fertile slopes of the Hunahpú Volcano in the Antigua Valley, at 1,620–2,000 metres above sea level. Coffee has grown here since the 1800s, and some of the original Typica and Bourbon trees are still part of the farm today.

The estate has been in the Zelaya family for over a century. It was the first property bought by patriarch Luis Pedro Aguirre in 1910, later passed to his niece Maria Zelaya Aguirre in 1959, and is now run by fourth-generation producer Ricardo Zelaya alongside his brother Luis Pedro.

Our suppliers Melbourne coffee merchants have sourced from Carmona since 2022.

The process

Cherries are hand-picked and taken to the on-site wet mill, where they're pulped and fermented overnight in tiled tanks. The beans are then washed, dried on raised patios, and rested in parchment before export.

Quality control runs out of a dedicated lab at the neighbouring Santa Clara Estate, where every lot is cupped and scored before blending, with the findings feeding back into how the farm harvests and processes each season.

Why we like it

This is a classy coffee the kind that comes from a century of experience, traditional processing done properly, and a farm that knows exactly what it's doing. What stood out to us was its restraint: no showy flavours, just clean, well-defined notes that don't need to compete with each other. Refined, quiet, and confident in what it is.