Finca Santa Irene
Bourbon Sidra is one of the rarest coffee varieties in the world — found in fewer than 1,000 plants globally. Grown at 1,740m in the Cobán cloud forest.
Chilero Club: earn with this bag
Meet Carlos
Finca Santa Irene is a 129-hectare protected forest reserve in Cobán, owned by Carlos's father, Dr. Jacinto Estrada Zanabria. In 2012, Carlos planted his first coffee on 15 hectares of it — today he is one of a very few farmers in the world building a programme for the ultra-rare Bourbon Sidra variety at scale.
He introduced meticulous quality control — measuring brix levels so only the ripest cherries make it through — and built a glass greenhouse to dry his coffee, protected from Cobán's near-constant rain.
Ripe coffee cherries are hand-picked during the harvest based on colour. They are then measured for their sugar content by measuring degrees Brix.
The whole cherry is dried intact on raised beds for 20–30 days. The fruit ferments around the seed, imparting the intense fruity sweetness Bourbon Sidra is known for.
We roast small-batches every week on a Loring roaster in East London. This coffee is roasted medium-light to preserve its extraordinary natural fruit character.
Grown in the Cobán cloud forest
Santa Irene sits at 1,740 metres in Cobán, a region unlike anywhere else in Guatemala. There is no dry season here — a fine mist the locals call chipi-chipi falls nine to ten months of the year, keeping the forest permanently shrouded. Slow ripening in limestone and clay soils creates the extraordinary complexity you taste in every sip.
Cherries are picked at optimal sugar content — measured at 18–22 degrees Brix — and dried slowly as a whole fruit in Carlos's glass greenhouse, pictured here, protected from the near-constant mist. The fruit ferments around the seed, concentrating the sweetness and intense fruit character in the cup.
Bourbon Sidra
Bourbon Sidra is one of the rarest coffee varieties in the world. It was discovered in Ecuador at Finca La Papaya. It is a natural cross between Bourbon and Pink Sudan. The Bourbon gives it floral sweetness. The Sidra gives it the extraordinary fruit intensity you taste in the cup.
Carlos is one of fewer than a handful of farmers in the world growing this variety commercially. Every bag sold helps him expand the programme.