Have you ever imagined a Specialty Coffee growing at sea level?

On September 23, 2023, we officially presented the project Alt Zero.

Cafetales Maspalomas in Gran Canaria is the fruit of a project that began more than two years ago, when Matteo Borea (aka Barista Coach), the third generation of the La Genovese roasting company in Albenga, began traveling regularly to Gran Canaria in search of a high-quality raw coffee that could be the first fully European-made specialty coffee.

This “coffee hunter” work led Matteo Borea to enter into a partnership with granjero canarios Antonio Perez Perez known as “Suso,” helping him to improve the production of his small plantation. Not an insignificant effort especially considering that almost all coffee plantations are located in the north of the Island, in the Agaete Valley, while Suso’s plantation is located in the far south, a few kilometers from Maspalomas.

This first batch is a “washed” one that fermented in water for 48 hours.

The small plantation now has 604 plants of the Caturra variety, and Suso is experimenting, with Matteo’s collaboration, with different methods of
processing.

A great contribution also came from Paolo Scimone, Q-Grader and top roasting expert in Italy, who believed in Matteo Borea’s project and supported him in proposing Europe’s first Specialty
coffee, “Cafetales Maspalomas of Gran Canaria.”

Cafetales Maspalomas from Gran Canaria, which received a specialty score of 80.50, is quite full-bodied, rounded, with a slight acidity that releases notes of pear, winter apple, cocoa, cedar and lemongrass in the cup.Getting a coffee that can be counted among the Specialty is not an easy thing, especially when it is a coffee grown almost at sea level but the peculiarities of the Canarian climate allow for almost year-round harvesting of abundant production due in part to the slow ripening of the drupes. Moreover, in the granja of Suso there are no pests and the plants enjoy excellent health. But for Matteo Borea. ” This is only a starting point. The project is in full evolution : we are already working both to improve the quality of coffee harvested that will allow us to achieve a higher SCA score, and to grow production by expanding the Suso plantation and acquiring new ones.”