Guatemala, El Sendero, Renardo Ovalle

In 1958, Dr. Jorge Vides and his family purchased land near the small town of La Libertad, where ideal rainfall and a crisp, dry wind create perfect conditions for growing exceptional coffee.

Today, the farm is run by Dr. Vides’ daughter, Maria Elena Vides de Ovalle, and her son, Renardo Ovalle. This coffee is grown on a small parcel called El Sendero—Spanish for “The Hike”—perched high in the surrounding hills. With most steps of production handled directly on the farm, their careful attention and generations of expertise yield an incredible cup, featuring tasting notes of marmalade, pomegranate, and sugar cane.

Renardo Ovalle's El Sendero microlot from Guatemala's La Libertad region presents a distinctive flavor profile anchored in bright, jammy sweetness. The combination of marmalade and pomegranate suggests a coffee with pronounced acidity and fruit-forward character, while the sugar cane note adds a syrupy sweetness that rounds the cup. These flavor impressions—ranging from preserved fruit to fresh citrus undertones—showcase how the lot's processing and terroir interact to create complexity within a cohesive sweet framework.

For those exploring how these sensory descriptions fit into broader coffee aromatics, the flavor wheel offers a useful reference for understanding the fruit and sweetness categories at play here.