This past week, I was fortunate to be able travel to visit with coffee producers in Guatemala for the first time. The week was jam packed with visits to farms, cooperatives and and exporters covering Guatemala City, Acatenago, Antigua, Huehuetenango and even a short trip into Mexico for tacos.

The trip started with our arrival in Guatemala City on Sunday and being driven to Coffee Awakening, a “glamping” site set up to host visitors to the Dinámica Coffee operation in the 18th zone of Guatemala City. This rather large, 3rd generation family owned property encompasses almost 100 acres right inside the city and houses the coffee milling, exporting, education center and the Glampground for visitors. In addition to the coffee business, the family also operates a brick factory, construction business and several Chili’s franchises. Most of the family members live on the property, and there is other housing for employees and their families.

Before sunset, we toured La Labor, the small farm located just down the street owned by Francisco Quezada, who grew up working for on the family farm. His grandfather taught him to drive the tractor starting at 6 years old and he’s never left the family business. Francisco exports his own coffee small roasters all over the world under the Montenegro Farms moniker.

On Monday, we toured the Dinámica operation. In addition to processing their own families coffees, they work with producers throughout Guatemala to bring their coffees to markets globally. Their model is not to compete with the largest exporters, or grow to a mass size, but to continue to invest in the people throughout the coffee chain foster sustainable growth, quality and success.

During the tour, we were able to taste 35 different coffees that are the first pickings from the current harvest. Slightly overwhelming to sort through them and ponder what we might bring in this coming year.

From there, we loaded up for a 3+ hour journey west to visit Finca Esmeralda in Acetenango. Mid-way, we switched from the bus to 4 wheel drive SUV’s as the roads are un-passable in anything else. The drive gave us views of some of the most beautiful countryside as we navigated around Volcan de Agua, one of the largest of the 20+ volcanos in Guatemala. Producer Hermes Peres Higueros not only manages his own farm, but represents the Cafe de Acetenango, a collective of producers in the region that certify all the members coffees. After lunch in the farm house, we loaded up for the 2 hour drive to Antigua. I did not relish another long drive over the dirt roads, but was eager to settle into a hotel for the night. After a fantastic dinner at a local Guatemalan restaurant that served traditional Mayan dishes, the day was over.

On Wednesday morning, we had a few hours to walk the ancient city and enjoy coffee at a local cafe. Fat Cat Coffee resembles many of the cafes we have come to appreciate in the US and other parts of the world. They served locally grown coffees that they roasted themselves and even had coffee from friends of ours in El Salvador. It’s amazing how small the coffee world can seem sometimes. We loaded up for a visit to CafeMar, another small milling and exporting operation run by a multigenerational family. Again, the work with small producers in the Antigua region to bring unique coffees to roasters that otherwise might never be known. We tasted another 24 coffees from small producers before taking a lunch break. While the number of coffees can seem overwhelming, over time, it’s becomes easier to distinguish the stellar from the great, and great from the good and know that all of these represent something unique.

We loaded up again the drive back to Guatemala City to catch a plane to Huehuetenango. It’s a short 30 min. flight vs. 8+ hours in the car. Our De Havilland turbo prop plane barely held our group and my front row seat and the open cockpit gave me a great view from the pilot's perspective. Much better than the back seat of a Toyota.

We landed and drove another 45 min. west along the Pan-Pacific highway which runs from Alaska to Argentina. Our hotel was only 5 miles from the Guatemala - Mexico border. (More on that later.) We arrived well after dark and called it a night.

We again loaded up into SUV’s for visits to local Huehuetenango producers, stopping first at Finca Buenos Aires. Producers Hector and Diana Diaz made some big changes in the past few years as they downsized from 100 hectares to 40 to adapt to both the market for coffee and the local economy. In essence, having a larger farm was not sustainable. Between a labor shortage and the lower prices for coffee, they decided to focus on solely on higher quality coffee instead of volume. One of the most interesting thing we saw was a small herd of goats eating away at the undergrowth, eliminating the need to hand weeding around the coffee trees. From there we visited Finca la Rosas where Rollando Villatoro maintains a farm that’s been in operation for over 100 years and 4 generations. He’s a gregarious and dedicated producer with many different varietals planted that he carefully maintains to yield his prize winning coffees year after year. After lunch and coffee from his farm, we made our way to Finca La Union. This farm had been abandoned years ago until Carlos Rivas took over and revitalized the operation. In addition to clearing the way to begin harvesting from the neglected trees, he cleared away areas for new trees and more specialized varietals. Again, this is the movement away from lower quality and lower priced commodity coffees to the more specialized coffees that bring sustainable prices, something that was evident everywhere we visited. Smaller is footprints and higher quality are becoming the norm while specialized exporters who work with these producers can help find the market for otherwise undiscovered coffees.

We finished our visit in that night by driving to the Guatemala - Mexico border and walking across to our hosts favorite taco stand. It was somewhat surprising that while there was a gate for vehicles moving back and forth, there wasn’t any apparent restriction on people walking from one country to the other. I found this to be slightly confusing going both directions that gives pause to examine the complexities and realities between what we read and what we experience first hand.

The next morning, we made our way back to the airport and the short flight to Guatemala City and our last night at the Glampground. Our short 4 days encompassed most of the major coffee growing regions and gave us insight into one of the best coffee growing countries and also the poorest at the same time. While agriculture, including coffee, are the major exports, money flowing from illegal drugs and Guatemalans living in other countries far exceed any other form of income, a fact of life that we are insulated against when enjoying our daily brew. The rhetoric streaming from Washington does little to point out the realities of how we live our lives compared to the majority people living and working in Guatemala and other coffee growing countries. At times, it’s hard to enjoy the coffee I drink, yet I know that in some way, our efforts to connect with these producers, exporters and other people involved in the coffee chain will hopefully raise their standard of living and educate coffee drinkers north of the border.

Thanks for reading!

David

Whirlwind in Guatemala

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