Περιγραφή
Coffee Expression A crisp and sweet expression, here reminiscent of ripe red berries, sweet dark chocolate and raisins.
Producer The Huista micro-region is dominated by very small-scale farms. This year we purchased individual lots from several returning partners.
Las Flores de Cafe
Here in the San Antonio Huista micro-region, the landscape is dominated by small-scale farms, many under 2 hectares. Growing and selling coffee provides the main income for most families in this remote and agriculturally dependent region. Our partners Primavera have a specific program focussed in the Huista area, sharing vital knowledge in order to increase and stabilize each producer’s income from coffee. This year, we aimed to create a larger lot for our seasonal selection, securing several small lots from producers we have worked with in the past. We combined these into a larger lot while still paying a healthy premium, and securing the highest quality. The producers behind this lot are familiar names to us at La Cabra; Catalina Manuel, Ramon Pablo Chales and Manuel Domingo, alongside new additions in Martin Jacinto Geronimo and Roselin Garcia Montejo.
The conditions high in the tropical Guatemalan highlands, characterised by high humidity and cool temperatures, lead to long, slow fermentations, often around 40 hours. This leads to a crisp and sweet expression, here reminiscent of ripe red berries, sweet dark chocolate and raisins.
Huehuetenango
Huehuetenango is located in the north-western highlands of Guatemala, and borders with Mexico. It is home to the highest altitudes in all of Central America, due to the presence of the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes mountain range, which peaks at 3837 masl. This creates lots of high altitude land to grow high-quality coffee, an important crop in an area where agriculture is the largest industry. A dry hot wind also blows in from the Tehuantepec plain in Mexico to the north, which protects crops from frost, allowing coffee to grow even higher up the slopes, often above 2000 masl. These high altitudes also lead to very beautiful scenery, something the area is known for, but also to a remoteness not found elsewhere in Guatemala. 9 different ancient Mayan dialects are still spoken here, and the region is home to some of the best preserved examples of Mayan architecture.
The remoteness also makes sourcing coffee a challenge here, the journey to farms often takes days over unforgiving terrain, and would-be coffee buyers require knowledge of the local dialects, or an experienced guide. We have visited and worked with our Guatemalan partners at Primavera for the past ten years, and have been stunned by the beauty of both the coffees they have been sourcing, and of this captivating region.
