2023 Guatemala Coffee Origin Trip
Welcome to For the Love of Coffee, a weekly blog about all things coffee exclusively for the employees of Vienna Coffee.
This week’s edition will mostly be pictures from my recent coffee origin trip to Guatemala where I spent 7 days visiting some of the most beautiful coffee farms and meeting the farmers and workers. It was truly the experience of a lifetime and I am so grateful to John Clark of Vienna Coffee for encouraging me to go on this life-changing adventure, and also to Les and Adam from Deeper Roots Coffee for allowing me to tag along and for patiently putting up with all my questions and non-stop picture taking! Enjoy the images, and please don’t hesitate to ask me any questions you may have about any of the pictures in this post, or if you would like to see more! Every day in Guatemala is a GREAT day for coffee!!!!
First day arriving in Antigua, Guatemala and my first glimpse of “Aqua” a dormant volcano right next to the city and home to many coffee farms on it’s magnificent slopes.
The small three-wheeled “Tuk Tuk” is a common way to get around in Guatemala.
Donkeys are also a common site on the city streets.
The women of Guatemala wear traditional dresses which are beautiful and are always very colorful.
Our first coffee farm visit was to the Julio Cuy Xar Family farm in Santa Maria De Jesus. In this photo, Les from Deeper Roots talks to Melvin, Julio’s son, about the coffee growing on their farm. This is the coffee we serve at Vienna under the name La Armonia Hermosa.
The deep red, fully-developed coffee cherries of the Santa Maria farm.
Melvin operates the farm’s coffee de-pulping machine which removes the coffee fruit from the coffee seeds (beans) inside where the beans can then be washed and laid out in the sun to dry.
In this picture you see natural processed coffee in which the coffee beans are left in the fruity skin and dried in the sun imparting a thicker body and more natural fruit notes to the coffee. Right next to the natural process, you can see some of the washed coffees drying where the fruit has been removed.
Farm workers spread out the coffee onto large tarps to dry in the sun.
A future coffee farmer was there with his father bringing some of the coffee grown on their farm to Julio for processing.
Two generations of coffee farmers, Julio and Melvin … Proud of their heritage and their coffee!
Sunrise high above the village on Finca San Jeronimo Merimar coffee farm.
Enjoying a wonderful cup of Finca San Jeronimo coffee high on a Guatemalan mountain on Finca San Jeronimo coffee farm!
Giorgio Bressani, a fourth-generation coffee farmer of Finca San Jeronimo Mirimar coffee plantation. Giorgio and his family are highly involved in the day-to-day operations of the farm and Giorgio frequently spends time among his coffee plants tending them, pulling weeds, and continually checking the health and development of the trees for any signs of disease or bug infestations.
Beautiful coffee cherries thriving because of constant attention and care.
Sometimes the coffee cherries are growing very high off the ground and some real effort is required to reach them for harvesting.
Selecting only ripe cherries is critical for getting the best taste from the coffee beans. Under, or over-ripe cherries are sorted out from the good ones at the processing area.
Some of the farm workers catch a lift after a long day of harvesting coffee cherries. Almost 2,000 lbs of coffee were picked on the day we visited the workers.
Coffee trees flourishing in the rich, volcanic soil of Guatemala.
We visited the plant nursery of Finca San Jeronimo where they hand-splice the roots of a Robusta coffee plant with an Arabica stalk to produce a heartier, healthier plant capable of better withstanding disease and also getting more nutrients to the coffee. It was truly amazing!
There are astonishly beautiful flowers everywhere on the farm.
Visit to the processing area the next morning where the coffee is laid out to dry in the sun for several days before being bagged and readied for shipment.
Workers using custom-made tools used for spreading out the coffee on the cement patios.
Cascara (dried coffee fruit) drying next to honey-processed coffee.
Coffee going into large tanks for fermenting to remove the sticky mucilage on the beans prior to drying. This is called “washed coffee” in processing terms.
Washed coffee beans flowing down a cement channel where they are stopped at the end of the channel and beans that do not meet the required density float to the top where they are then channeled to another area to be used in lower-quality coffee offerings. This very old and time-tested method results in only the highest quality coffee being selected for the specialty market.
One of the many trip highlights. I had the privilege of going for a ride in a private plane owned and piloted by the Senior Mr. Bressani , who is still heavily involved in the family coffee and dairy business of the farm.
Marathon cupping sessions were a big part of the trip. We cupped over 120 different coffee lots over the course of 3 days!
View from a final coffee farm visited in the small village of San Pedro, high atop a mountain accessible only by extremely steep and bumpy roads.
Two generations of Guatemalan coffee farmers working their farm in San Pedro.
Not all of the farm workers in San Pedro are human.
The final night in Guatemala City we were treated to an amazing sunset!