Finca San Florencio Quetzaltenango FW

Finca San Florencio is located in the village of Las Barrancas, Ostuncalco municipality, Quetzaltenango department. At an altitude of 1600m, the Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai and Pacamara trees produce high-density beans. This coffee is naturally high in sugars and acidity thanks to the slow maturation process. San Florencio is among the earliest high-quality farms that start harvesting in Guatemala. Because of the particular rainfall conditions in the micro-region, the cherries are ready to harvest in November already. Other regions follow in the months after.

The estate has been in the current owner’s family since 1950, when Mr. Egidio Herrera acquired it. The previous owners mainly cultivated sugar cane on the land. After Egidio’s death in 1981, his daughter Olga took over management of the farm. Due to a drop in sugar prices, she changed Finca San Florencio’s course to coffee production. Through hard work and dedication, Olga managed to steer San Florencio through difficult times caused by coffee pests and the international coffee crisis. Her focus on quality was rewarded in 2014, when the farm’s coffee ranked 16th in Cup of Excellence. In the meantime, Olga’s daughter Alejandra has taken over management of the farm.

Olga Herrera is well-aware of the socio-ecological role of Finca San Florencio. She puts great focus on the conservation of fauna and flora on and around the farm. Part of San Florencio’s surface is a natural forest reserve. The finca also offers job opportunities for the people of Las Barrancas village. Next to that, she offers part of the land so they can grow their own crops and make a living.

Quality at San Florencio starts in the field. During harvest, the farm employs 20 seasonal workers from the nearby community. These have good experience harvesting for specialty coffee. They will pick the ripe fruits only, and return to the same tree three times. This allows them to pick a maximum of cherries at an ideal degree of ripeness, and to have a uniform cherry quality at the wet mill. At the wet mill, defective cherries are removed through flotation. This uniform cherry quality allows for a much finer depulping, resulting in less damaged beans.

After depulping, the coffee ferments for 24 hours in one of the 3 fermentation tanks. The water gets changed regularly to keep the coffee clean. This greatly impacts the clarity of the cup. The parchment coffee goes through the washing and grading channel when fermentation is complete. The quality team runs a final visual check on the wet parchment to take out as many defects as possible.

, the coffee dries on the patio in full sun for about a week until it reaches 11.5% moisture content. The parchment is raked through every 20 minutes in hot weather conditions and when close to the desired moisture content. In milder weather conditions, every hour. At night or in the case of rain, the parchment is moved into a shed to prevent defects because of humidity.