HIGHLAND COOP - WASHED - GUATEMALA

Huehuetenango is a great place to grow coffee- limestone soils, high mountain
altitudes, cold nights and hot days all come together to allow for the production
of high-quality coffee. Our coffees from Guatemala sometimes arrive a bit later in
the year because we’re waiting for the coffees from Huehuetenango to ripen and
be processed, and we’re committed to waiting for partner producers’ last
pickings to dry so that we can pay premium prices for their lots. This is an area
where small farmers process and dry their own coffee, as opposed to selling red
cherries to the local coyote. Selling dry parchment coffee allows smallholders to
take the biggest piece of the pie possible.

This blend represents our purchasing commitment in action- we want to make
sure that we were able to purchase a wide variety of coffees from long-term
producer partners, including coffees that performed best when blended
together. Traditional sourcing models often reward only a small portion of a
producer’s harvest- the very highest-scoring microlots- while the rest is left
behind or undervalued. With long-term relationships and clear communication
during the harvest season, the producers that we work with know that they can
count on us to purchase a range of their coffees- and they process their cherries
carefully, knowing that it will be fairly valued and compensated. The 2025
purchasing season was a challenging one- volatile coffee prices created
incentives for many producers without obvious buyers to pick cherries quickly to
take advantage of high prices in an uncertain context. High fertilizer prices and
inflation continued to keep producers’ costs high this season. About a few of the
contributors to this community lot:

Antonio Martínez is a second-generation coffee producer from El Chalum,
Huehuetenango. He manages two lots—Cerro Verde and Lote de la
Finca—planted with bourbon, caturra, San Ramón, and gesha. Antonio is
relatively new to specialty coffee, and already committed to experimentation and
quality, using terracing, soil testing, and a blend of organic and chemical
fertilization to improve plant health and yields. He oversees the processing and
shares physical infrastructure with his father, Jorge. Labor shortages and input
costs were the key challenges of the season.

Erick Perez contributed two lots from two separate parcels- Las Cuevas (which is
the biggest of his lots) at 1800 masl, and his smaller plot called Las Ventanas at
1560 masl in Hoja Blanca. Erick works alongside his father Adiel to process his
coffee, and he has been pushing his family to focus on quality processing. They
process all of their coffee at a wet mill across the street from the family home,
using a screen to keep under- and over-ripe cherries out of the fermentation
tank, and fermenting the coffee carefully to keep the coffee mass from getting
too hot. They have caturra and bourbon varieties on their parcels.

Cruz Perez is in charge of commercializing the ASDEFLOR association’s coffee.
His coffee parcels sit at an average altitude of 1700 masl and are home to caturra,
bourbon and villa sarchi varieties. Don Cruz championed the construction of the
association’s collective wet-mill, with large concrete tanks, patio space and
African beds. This wet mill has lifted the quality of individual producers’ coffees
who often don’t have reliable access to electricity, clean water or proper drying
facilities to process their excellent cherries to specialty standards.