Guatemala Vista Hermosa
The Farm
Armin inherited this land from his parents and continued their work as coffee growers. As a child, he enjoyed running around the farm and being taught everything his father knew about coffee. Before embarking on working exclusively on his own plot, he worked on other farms in order to earn more fees and be able to buy additional land to expand his parents’ plot.
Villa Hermosa is named for the beautiful views that the farm offers, due to its high altitude and orientation to the mountainside.
On the other hand, Armin has installed a well in his wet mill for the proper treatment of wastewater, which is important to minimize the contamination of local water and soil resources. As a new generation, he is concerned about investing in infrastructure that helps improve quality and the environment.
Process Method
The cherries are harvested ripe and processed in Armin’s wet mill on the same day. Once pulped, the beans are soaked in water for 32 hours. They are then washed in chutes and soaked for a second time for 10 more hours. After this time, the parchment-coated beans are ready for the drying yard.
Armin follows strict protocols at this stage of preparation to obtain optimal drying. The coffee is spread out on the cement yard to a thickness of 6 cm and is raked every hour to ensure even drying. After 6 days the beans have reached the drying point that Armin seeks and are stored in sacks.
They will later be sent to the thresher and exporter for final shipment.
Origen
While coffee arrived in Guatemala in the late 18th century, as with much of the Central and South American colonies, its cultivation began to gain traction in the 1860s, with the arrival of European immigrants encouraged by the Guatemalan government to establish plantations.
Coffee seeds and cuttings were distributed as a stimulus, as the country’s main export crop (indigo) had recently failed, leaving the population somewhat desperate to find an agricultural replacement. By the end of the 19th century, Guatemala was exporting more than 140 tons of coffee a year. Until 2011, it was among the world’s five largest coffee producers, although in recent years it has been overtaken by Honduras.
A large percentage of Guatemala’s population, and therefore also the coffee sector, identifies with one of more than 20 officially recognized indigenous groups and most farmers are small coffee growers working independently of each other, or formally affiliated in cooperative associations.
In 1960, coffee growers developed their own union, which has since grown into the national coffee institute Anacafé (Asosiación Nacional del Café), a research center, marketing agent and financial organization that provides loans and offers support to producers in different regions.
12 € – 48 €
Envío gratuito a partir de 40€ de compra. (Península y Baleares)