Guatemala Visit 2020

Origin visit to Guatemala

Las Cruces

A photo of the Las Cruces wet mill in Guatemala City. While the mill processes cherry from their own farms they also process for partner farms.

Cupping at Dinamica

Cupping farm lots at the Las Cruces dry mill in Guatemala City

Las Cruces patios at sunset

Coffee patios

Late afternoon visit to Beneficio Armenia. This milling operation was recently purchased by a group of local farmers who had success in other farming ventures and wanted to improve the quality out of this mill.

Patios at Cafe Mar

The patios at La Azotea just outside Antigua. Beautiful tried and true coffee processing, all traditional methods are used here. Fully washed, hand raked and sundried coffees.

Antigua

Volcan de Agua 

Departing Guatemala City for Huehuetenango

The long road to Huehuetenango San Pedro de Necta

Coffee fermentation at Las Rosas Huehue

Rolando Villatoro has started to improve quality and enter coffee competitions starting in 2005. He has planted over 10 different varieties on the farm from as far away as Java.

In this tank he is fermenting his orange geisha variety.

Finca Las Rosas Huehuetenango

Rolando Villatoro standing by his drying beds. He dries all of his high end micro lots this way. Attention to detail is important for him to produce exceptional quality coffees.

Orange Geisha Cherries

Beautiful shot of ripe orange geisha cherries ready to harvest in Huehuetenango.

Finca Buenos Aires

Patios at the beautiful Finca Buenos Aires. This is a family farm that has been run by the same family for over 80 years. New plantings and variety separations are part of their growth plan.

Finca Buenos Aires

Las Rosas

Walking through the farm with Chespi and Rolando discussing the varieties and agricultural practices used on the farm.

Carlos Rivas at Finca La Union

Checking on his parchment drying

Mayan ruin in Huehuetenango

by Jim McEnaney

In February we made our way back to Guatemala. It had been a few years since our last visit, so we wanted to cover quite a bit of ground and see as much of the country as possible.

Our trip started in Guatemala City and we moved throughout the country making our way to Huehuetenango. We spent the first night camping at the Coffee Awakening (“glamping” AKA glamorous camping on a coffee farm) and prepared for the early departure to Acatenango and Antigua. We visited members of ASPROGUATE Co-op. These small farmers produce high quality organic coffee that tastes amazing. We have brought in coffee for two harvests from this co-op and look forward to the 2021 harvest.

After Acatenango, we made our way to Antigua, one of the most iconic and well-known coffee producing areas in all of Guatemala. With farm visits all morning and a tight schedule, we ended up at Beneficio La Azotea which is a 150-year-old coffee mill with traditional processing equipment and rustic patios. We toured the wet mill and learned about their operations. The afternoon we spent a few hours cupping their day lot coffees and were lucky enough to select some exceptional lots to import to the USA.

Once we wrapped up in Antigua, we hopped on a small prop plane and headed west to the mountains of Huehuetenango. The flight out was amazing, allowing for a great view of the rugged Cuchumatanes mountains popping up out of the earth. When we landed in Huehue we had a wide range of farm visits lined up while we were in San Pedro de Necta. These farms ranged in size from 5 hectares to 150 hectares, all producing top quality coffees. One of the great things we saw while in Huehue was the ingenuity of the farmers, how they built their mills, the layout of the farm, the variety selection, and how they process the coffee. It seems like each farm has its own unique way of growing and processing coffee which leads to the diverse and complex cup qualities you find in Huehue coffees.  

Hope you enjoy the photos and if you are interested in any of these lots please contact us Sales@laminita.com.