Palo Blanco is produced in the San José Pinula region near Fraijanes, Guatemala. This coffee is named for the Palo Blanco tree, a gracious plant used to shade Guatemalan coffee plantings, also the source of a prized hard-wood known as white mahogany. When the Palo Blanco’s large, canary-yellow flowers are in bloom, this tree becomes the floral centerpiece for many surrounding farms.

Volcanic soil filled with pumice, high altitudes, and an active volcano are all characteristics that Fraijanes shares with nearby Antigua. Pacaya, the most active of Guatemala’s three active volcanoes, regularly supplies the region with a light deposit of ash, giving the soil an important mineral boost. Although clouds, fog, and very heavy dew are common in the early morning, they burn off quickly, allowing all Fraijanes Plateau coffees to be naturally sun-dried.

Fraijanes is an old and well-established growing region with high elevations and a sunny harvest season, but very few of these coffees actually reach the United States. My own love of this coffee may be colored by a personal preference for Guatemalan varietals whose acidity is balanced by sweetness and nuanced by fruit. This is a sweet cup with interesting spice notes and good acidic snap to it.

Shade-grown coffee is one of the most environmentally benign crops in the world and is perhaps the ideal agro-forestry crop. The use of large trees for shading coffee is a Guatemalan coffee-growing custom and is said to have been developed here. Coffee grown under the proper level of shade takes longer to develop, which favors the development of rich and complex flavors. This is an exceptionally sweet, delightful coffee - flavorful without being overpowering.