TASTING NOTES

Coffee tasting notes for Santiago, Guatemala: chocolate stout, apple candy, molasses cookies

SANTIAGO, GUATEMALA COFFEE BACKGROUND

While this is our sixth harvest working with Los Volcanes Coffee, we’re excited to offer this coffee from the Lake Atitlán area for the first time. This offering is mainly from 100 small-holder farmers who live around a village called Santiago. The majority of these producers are Kaqchikel, an indigenous Mayan people native to Mexico and Guatemala. For the most part these producers inherited their farms from their parents, and farming coffee is a whole-family effort. They grow coffee on the steep sides of volcanoes that surround the immense crater lake.

Each producer gets paid individually and delivers one to two bags of coffee cherries every day. Meticulous record keeping and demarcation on the bags is key — in addition to facilitating this individual payment, this record keeping supports traceability of the coffee. The town of Santiago begins its harvest in November due to its position on the volcano facing the lake. The first few months of harvest are a round-the-clock operation. Los Volcanes uses a truck to collect cherry near Toliman, about 15 kilometers east of Santiago. Then, the truck drives to their processing center in Antigua, arriving around 2am. There, they weigh each farmer’s delivery, which begins the payment process.

The Los Volcanes mill cupping lab team evaluates each lot and provides feedback to farmers, continually improving quality and consistency. The mill then exports the coffee for the farms, giving them access to the specialty market and higher premiums. Los Volcanes connects roasters and importers to specific, quality-driven coffee farms and communities. This is a great example of mutually beneficial partnerships, and Blueprint is proud to support this effort through our green coffee purchases.