Guatemala - El Sendero

Origine: Concepción Huista, Huehuetenango, Guatemala      
Variety: Bourbon, Caturra, Pache
Process: Washed
Elevation: 1,600 - 2,000 MASL
Contributing Producers: Luis Ramírez, Francisco Gaspar, Nicolas Jiménez, Daniel Salucio

This coffee was produced by four smallholder coffee producers who are members of the El Sendero Cooperative, located in the municipality and town of Concepción Huista, in Guatemala’s state of Huehuetenango.

The farms that contributed to this lot are very small – on average just 3 hectares in size – and are located between 1600-2000m above sea level, in the steep, rugged hills that surround Concepción. Farmers in the region benefit from abundant freshwater, thanks to the local Rio Azul (Blue River) and its tributaries. All coffee in town is grown under the shade of Chalum trees (a local variety of Inga) and Gravillea, though the amount of shade needs to be managed carefully every year due to HueHue’s humid, temperate climate. Coffee is also intercropped with other fruit trees like avocados, lemons, oranges, and peaches.

Most farms in Concepción Huista are planted with the traditional Bourbon and Caturra varieties, with Pache introduced in more recent years. Coffee here is farmed with traditional techniques and organic practices, as most producers have been growing the crop their whole lives. Coffee pulp is recycled and dried to be used as fertiliser, and sedimentary tanks are employed to treat the water used during processing. All weeding is done manually, and few chemical pesticides or fertilisers are utilised—though fungicide is applied before flowering, to prevent roya outbreaks. Like all small-scale farmers in Huehuetenango, members of El Sendero are proud to selectively hand-harvest their cherry and process it at their own farms, with most labour being provided by the farmers and their families.