Carmona – 1000 Faces Coffee

1000 Faces Coffee is a specialty coffee roaster from Athens, Georgia with a focus on “respect for geographic origin, direct relationships, and ecological awareness”¹. I recently had the awesome opportunity to try a few of their current offerings including Muzo (Rwanda), Jacon & Santos (Brazil) and this Carmona (Guatemala). I was incredibly impressed with the vibrancy and uniqueness of each of their coffees. In this first review, I’ll be focusing on Carmona, a washed coffee from the Antigua region of Guatemala.

The coffee experience begins with an intense aroma of red apple sweetness that envelops the senses. As I began to sip the coffee, I tasted the Fugi apple sweetness and other fruit notes of plum and cranberry that simply became more pronounced as the coffee cooled. The coffee had an incredibly juicy acidity that flowed throughout each sip and was accentuated in the finish. One of my favorite attributes of the coffee was the body. It had a medium, creamy body that produced this wonderful weight on my tongue and had the feeling it was everywhere at once. The coffee was well balanced and had a nice deep sweetness of raw honey. I found the expression of the coffee came out best via pour over, but it also did nicely in espresso and immersion-style brew methods as well.

The Bottom Line

Guatemalan coffees have become my favorite origin from the Americas over the past 12 months because of coffees like Carmona. It is rich, sweet, juicy and full of flavor. I am savoring the last of my bag and am excited to try the other Guatemala offerings 1000 Faces has in the future.