Guatemala-Guayabales – Theory Collaborative

Theory Collaborative is yet another new roaster I had the opportunity to try through my Crema.co subscription. They are a roaster based out of Redding, California and their current Guatemalan coffee from the Huehuetenango region was the latest delivery from my Crema.co playlist.

The coffee begins with an incredibly creamy and chocolaty aroma with sweet graham cracker notes layered in. The flavor was even more impressive and included some of the same notes as the aroma (chocolate & creamy), but also had a wonderfully sweet-tart acidity and sweetness with notes of orange. The acidity was balanced, but also tart and tangy. The coffee had a medium creamy body and a tangy finish that lingered long past when I expected it to drop out.

While pour over is always my go-to brew method, I really enjoyed this coffee in espresso where it had a wonderful mix of creamy tartness and the orange flavor notes came through quite clearly.

The Bottom Line

Guatemala-Guayabales was an impressive first look at Theory Collaborative for me. It was everything I expected and more in a high-quality Guatemalan coffee. It was rich & chocolatey and clean & balanced, all of which made it incredibly approachable. It also had the delicious orange notes and the sweet tart sweetness and tangy aftertaste, which added an extra layer of complexity and surprise. I’ve been looking for a great Central American coffee to balanced some of the wonderful African coffees I’ve been trying recently and I just found it with Guatemala-Guayabales.