About This Coffee
The De La Roca family owns and operates Finca El Platanar y Anexos. The siblings cultivate different parcels and this lot comes from Marco Aurelio’s parcel. All coffee is processed at the farm’s wet mill.
Cultivation
The family members are fully committed to produce coffee of the highest quality while seeking a balance between productivity and sustainability.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Coffee is picked and delivered to the farm’s wet mill where it is processed using environmentally sound methods. Coffee is fermented in tanks for an average of 38 hours and then washed in clean water. Parchment is laid to dry on patios where it is raked frequently to ensure even drying. It takes an average of 8 days for coffee to dry.
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.