Familia Mendez guatemala specialty arabica filter coffee 1kg

About the coffee:

Sisters Juana and Minga Mendez are 4^th-generation coffee growers who have lived and farmed in Chichimes in Huehuetenango for most of their lives. In 2010, the sisters were the first female producers to work with Rosma Coffeelands to promote their coffees. Since then, they’ve been successfully exporting their coffees under their own name and receiving fair prices that enable them to reinvest in their farm.

Harvest & Post-harvest:

Juana and Minga selectively handpick ripe, red cherry and process it on their farm. They pulp cherry on a drum pulper and dry ferment it for 40 hours. Following fermentation, they wash parchment in clean water and lay it to dry on patios. They rake parchment every hour to ensure even drying and cover it at night to prevent condensation. It takes approximately 7 to 9 days for parchment to dry. Once dry, parchment is bagged and stored in a mill in Huehuetenango, where the cool weather and low humidity is ideal for storing coffees. Parchment rests for about 3 months before being milled and prepared for export.

Coffee in Guatemala:

Guatemala boasts a variety of growing regions and conditions that produce spectacular coffees. Today, the country is revered as a producer of some of the most flavorful and nuanced cups worldwide. We are proud to work with several exceptional in-country partners to bring these coffees to market.

The Guatemalan coffee industry experienced a major setback with the 2010 appearance of Coffee Leaf Rust (CLR) in Latin America. The epidemic peaked in severity in 2012, and though CLR continues to affect some farms, Guatemala continues to produce high-quality, record-breaking coffees. In 2017, new and varied processing methods pushed prices at the Guatemalan Cup of Excellence contest to record highs.

The quality of coffee being produced in Guatemala is increasing, overall, due to the diversity of the industry’s producers. There are more and more small holder farmers producing exceptional coffee at high altitudes. Cooperatives are becoming more appealing to so many smallholders because they often offer farmers financing and other support for improving their farming and processing and are frequently able to offer higher prices for cherry than middlemen. Many cooperatives have initiated quality improvement training for farmer members and are becoming more adept at helping members market their coffee as specialty.