This is In My Mug coffee number 937, roasted and posted to subscribers on Friday 23rd October 2026.
Black cherry yoghurt is at the heart of this one, with plum and currants alongside. There’s a brandy warmth too, and the sweetness of almonds to round it out.
San Patricio El Limón was the first farm we ever bought from directly in Guatemala, back in 2013, after an introduction from our friend Raul Rodas (2012 World Barista Champion). This season we’ve bought three lots from the Reyes family, and this naturally processed Caturra is the latest to land in your mug.
A farm built a parcel at a time
The Reyes family bought the land at El Limón in 1997, with Beto and his brothers carrying on a coffee-growing tradition that runs through the family. They started small, buying modest parcels and building up from there. Today the farm covers eighteen hectares, around half of it planted with coffee, on slopes between 1,350 and 1,850 metres above sea level.
It’s still very much a family business. Beto’s wife Marilyn has always been at the heart of it. Their children Eliana, Betio, Saul and Ruth now each look after a different part of the operation, and Beto’s brother Felix runs the family’s wet mill. Sharing the load matters, because Beto is also Mayor of Palencia, and we’ve never quite worked out how he fits it all in.
Caturra, done the natural way
Caturra is one of the two varieties the farm is built on, alongside Bourbon. It’s a compact natural mutation of Bourbon, first found in Brazil and introduced to Guatemala in the 1940s. Its smaller stature lets farmers plant trees closer together, and at altitude it’s capable of a really sweet, well-structured cup.
Natural processing is still the exception in Guatemala, where washed coffees dominate, but it’s become something of a calling card at El Limón. Drying the coffee with the whole cherry intact pushes fruit and sweetness to the fore, and that’s exactly what you’ll find in this cup. Because the family run their own mill, every lot is kept separate, down to individual days’ pickings, processes and varieties. If you’d like to know more about how naturals work, take a look at our coffee processing guide.
Putting Palencia on the podium
Palencia isn’t one of Guatemala’s eight officially recognised coffee-growing regions, and names like Antigua, Huehuetenango and Cobán tend to grab the headlines. The results coming out of El Limón are hard to ignore, though. In 2021 a natural Pacamara from the farm placed 14th in the Guatemala Cup of Excellence. In 2025 they went further, with another natural Pacamara finishing 8th in the competition’s natural and honey category with a score of 88.38. That same year, a natural Pacamara from El Limón took 2nd place in the natural category of Flores del Café, a competition organised by Anacafé and IWCA Guatemala to celebrate coffees produced by women.
If you were with us for IMM 908 earlier this year, you’ll already have tasted what the family can do with a natural Pacamara. Behind both coffees is years of steady investment: a rebuilt wet mill, a quality control lab, a new warehouse, accommodation for workers and around eight water reservoirs across the farm.
The full story of the Reyes family is in our producer story.
Traceability
- Country: Guatemala
- Region: Palencia
- Farm: San Patricio El Limón
- Producers: The Reyes family
- Altitude: 1,350 to 1,850 m.a.s.l.
- Farm size: 18 hectares
- Coffee growing area: 9 hectares
- Varietal: Caturra
- Processing method: Natural
Cupping scores
Tasting notes: Black cherry yoghurt, plum, almond.
Cup of Excellence cupping scores
- Clean cup: 6.5/8
- Sweetness: 6.5/8
- Acidity: 6/8
- Mouthfeel: 6/8
- Flavour: 7/8
- Aftertaste: 6.5/8
- Balance: 6.5/8
- Overall: 6.5/8
- Correction: +36
- Total: 87.5/100
If you’d like to find out more about how we score coffees, read our blog post What Do Coffee Cupping Scores Actually Mean?
Roast information
Medium-dark - a steady, consistent heat through the gap and into the first pops of second should get you where you need to be.
