Finca Carrizalito

About the Coffee

Ricardo Zelaya bought Finca Carrizalito in 1986 when he was 21 years old, in the highlands of Nuevo Oriente, Guatemala. It was his first farm, and the place where he built his wet mill and ran his earliest planting experiments. Everything he's done in coffee since traces back to this land.

The farm sits at 1,000 to 1,200 meters on volcanic soil, with close to eight months of rain a year. Carrizalito now doubles as a nursery for Ricardo's other farms, growing seedlings that get planted across his wider network. It's a six to nine hour drive over rough roads to reach it, which says something about how much work goes into keeping it running. The farm also funds a primary school for more than 100 local kids, including a computer lab, which reflects how Ricardo ties the farm's success to the community around it.

The lot is a mix of Caturra, Bourbon, Catuai, Villa Sarchi, and Pacas, all fully washed and dried on patios. Washing here means the fruit is stripped from the bean before drying, which tends to produce a cleaner, more consistent cup than fruit left to dry directly on the coffee. It's a traditional method, done the way Ricardo has done it for decades.

About Somewhere Coffee

Somewhere Coffee Co. is a small roastery in Sherwood Park, Alberta. It started with a simple set of questions: where does coffee come from, and why does one cup taste different from another. Chasing those answers turned into a roastery.

They roast each coffee through a series of sample batches first, cupping and adjusting until they find a profile that fits the lot, rather than pushing every coffee toward the same style. Sourcing leans on relationships with importers who work directly with producers, so information about the farm and the people behind it comes along with the beans, not as an afterthought.

Ricardo Zelaya's story stood out to me because Carrizalito isn't his biggest or most polished farm, it's the one where he learned everything else. You can taste decades of steady, unglamorous refinement in this cup. It's the kind of coffee that rewards you for paying attention to where it came from.
- Dean, Director of Coffee

"I've been hearing about Somewhere Coffee for a few months now - what drew me in is how they tailor their roasting style to the bean. Many roasters we work with have a specific style of roasting they adhere to; Somewhere is focused on getting the most from each bean. Enjoy!"

- Dean, Director of Coffee