Guatemala – Cafe De Mujeres

Origin: Guatemala
Region: Huehuetenango
Town: Caserío San Juan, Aldea El Palmar, San Pedro Necta
Estate: Asociación Civil Comercializadora Maya Alternativa (COMAL)
Owner: 124 Female producer-members with COMAL
Altitude: 1400-2000 masl
Varieties: Bourbon, Catuai, Caturra, Pache
Certification: Fairtrade, Organic
Grade: SHB
Processing: Fully washed
Cupping Score: 84.0
Cupping Notes: Nutty, Apple, Caramel

With support from COMAL, the female producers who contributed to the Café de Mujeres lot focus on improving coffee quality and their farms’ environmental sustainability. They participate in livestock sharing projects, produce their own organic fertilizers, attend workshops about entrepreneurship and financial literacy and regularly renovate their rootstock to keep trees healthy and productive.

We contribute a premium from every bag of COMAL Mujeres sold to support a traveling medical and dental clinic. The medical and dental clinic, organized by the exporter, UNEX, runs 12 week-long clinics per year and serves 300+ producers in each week of operation.

The premiums from each bag of COMAL Mujeres will go specifically towards supporting women’s health. UNEX met with a doctor to determine the most impactful way to support women’s health in the communities they’re serving. Premiums from these sales will go to supplying complete vitamin tablets that will provide nutrients that are underrepresented in their diets and promote healthy, long-lasting lives.

Cultivation

While coffee is the main cash crop for these producers, they also cultivate honey, fruit trees and subsistence crops like maize and beans. They also plant trees to preserve biodiversity and protect reserves of groundwater as well as a variety of flowers and plants that attract bees and increase their honey production.

Harvest & Post-Harvest

Each producer processes and dries their own coffee on small patios. They all have their own small pulpers, fermentation tanks, washing systems and parabolic dryers. COMAL organizes the collection of dried parchment from members and delivers it to the FECCEG dry mill in Quetzaltenango. Here, the quality team analyzes each lot. Depending on the quality, it will either be kept separate and sold as a microlot or blended with other coffees from the same producer organization and quality group.

Small Batch Roasting: Roast For You Service – Terms & Conditions

Introduction

Small Batch Roasting now offers a service that offers personalised coffee roasting for customers who want to enjoy freshly roasted coffee tailored to their preferences.

Roast For You Service

When you choose to have your coffee roasted for you, we will roast the exact amount ordered and roast this for you to the selected roast profile you have chosen. Our small batch roasting process ensures that your coffee is roasted with care and precision, resulting in a high-quality, freshly roasted product.

Minimum Green Weight Requirement

Please be advised that the minimum green weight for roasting any one single origin is 6kg. Any orders placed with less than 6kg of each origin will be placed on hold and may cause delays in being dispatched. We will contact you to discuss how you wish to proceed in this case.

Weight Loss During Roasting

Please be mindful of the weight loss through moisture loss during roasting, which is typically between 12-20% depending on the level of roast. The darker the roast, the higher the moisture loss. This weight loss should be taken into account when ordering your coffee to ensure you receive the desired amount of roasted coffee.

Order Processing Time

Orders for roasted coffees will naturally take a little longer to process. Please allow a minimum of 3 days for your order to arrive from the point of order. If we are able to drop your order in the roasting schedule sooner, we will always endeavor to do so.

Mixed Orders

Mixed orders which include green and roasted coffees will be dispatched together when the roasted coffees are ready. We are unable to split these orders, so please consider the slightly longer delivery times when ordering mixed coffees.

Packaging

Your coffee will be bulk packed into a 6kg bulk bag with an identifying label on only. This packaging ensures that your coffee remains fresh and protected during transit.

Roast Profile and Liability

We will roast to your desired roast profile, but are unable to take any liability for any taste discrepancies that may arise from this. We are unable to take back any coffees once they have been roasted to your desired roast profile.

Yield Estimate

Typically, a medium roast coffee at 6kg green will yield 5.1kg of freshly roasted coffee. This estimate should be taken into account when ordering your coffee to ensure you receive the desired amount of roasted coffee.

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.