Ronaldo Donizete - Sítio Santo Antônio

In the daily work, Ronaldo and his family carry out the maintenance throughout the year and also the crop during harvest time. They harvest an average of 120/130 bags a year. In addition to working in roça, Ronaldo, 42 years old, is also a bricklayer. He made his own house. He built everything around there. But to produce quality coffee, it’s necessary to “ficar um par de dia” — to stay a couple of days, that is, to dedicate fully. So, little by little Ronaldo is trying to disconnect from the constructions and dedicate himself to coffee.

This beautiful natural processed coffee is from Brazil and produced by Ronaldo Donizete. It is of the Mundo Novo varietal, a natural cross between Sumatra & red bourbon, both sub-species of the Typica varietal.

Atitlan Finca San Jose Del Lago Bourbon

Finca San José del Lago is on the southern shore of Guatemala’s breathtaking lake Atitlán, long considered a place of ancient importance and still home to some of Guatemala’s most visible indigenous communities. Atitlán’s surface sits at almost 1600 meters and is a volcanic basin surrounded by dramatically steep escarpments, and, as Eduardo describes, numerous volcanoes. As one might imagine, the terroir here is exquisite for coffee, and a lot of coffee is grown in various communities around the lake, many of whom still successfully grow Typica and bourbon, the first varieties planted in the area. However, it is rare to find coffee from single large estates such as San José del Lago. Most of the coffee from Atitlán is smallholder grown and either cooperatively represented or bought by independent processors at competitive local rates.

Eduardo’s great-grandfather first purchased the family land in 1909. He approached the land as a broker, whose business was buying and selling properties, but he became so enamored with the landscape that he could not bring himself to sell it. The original 200 hectares remained completely forested for decades. Coffee was first planted in the 1940s by Eduardo’s grandfather, and although more recent cultivars have been added to the mix, the bourbon and Typica plants that first went into the ground are still providing seed stock for the now 45 hectares of coffee that Eduardo oversees. When his grandfather passed away the farm became his father’s and uncle’s to manage, and they set about improving the infrastructure and adding crops to the land’s rotation such as bananas, avocados, corn, beans, tomatoes, chayote, cabbage, and heirloom squash. Finally, in 2016 the decision was made to divide the farm into equal portions, one of which Eduardo and his immediate family named San José del Lago. Processing on the farm takes place in the family’s historic wet mill.

Except for the nails and a bit of concrete the entire operation was built from timber and stone native to the family land. The only mechanical portion of processing remains de-pulping. Cherry comes in from the farm, is de-pulped, sorted by density, and fermented in handmade tanks. After fermentation, it is cleaned and then dried on a combination of raised screen beds and tarps. Selective picking for ripe cherry means the farm crew of 100 is usually harvesting the early-ripening Typica trees first during the year, then the bourbons, leading to a natural separation by variety.

San José del Lago shares farm profits with employees and invests in their education, as well as donates portions of its land for community development projects which so far has included a medical clinic, a school, and a water tank for the town of Santiago Atitlán.

Acatenango ASPROGUATE Organic

Asociación Sostenible de Productores de Guatemala (ASPROGUATE) is a relatively young organization that unites and empowers small, mostly indigenous coffee grower communities near Lake Atitlán, the Acatenango volcano, and San Martín Jilotepeque, where the association is now headquartered. These three small coffee municipalities together form a triangle in Guatemala’s central highlands and include some of the country’s oldest-established coffee terroirs.

ASPROGUATE was founded in 2014 and its current president, don Hermes Pérez Higueros, is the grandson of Don José Pérez Rosales, who in 1890 founded one of Guatemala’s first registered coffee estates in Acatenango. So the identity of this group runs deep. ASPROGUATE sees itself as a necessary kind of grower association that promotes biodiversity and shade cover in the coffee-lands, organic methods, and a strong sense of cultural identity through coffee that connects indigenous and Spanish ancestors in a shared purpose.

Today 95% of ASPROGUATE farmers are organically certified, 55% are women, and 90% belong to the indigenous Cakchiquel and Tzutujil ethnicities. This coffee was produced by 65 associate farmers in Acatenango, a coffee-growing region west of the volcano of the same name, close to the border of Chimaltenango and Sacatepéquez departments. All ASPROGUATE members are educated in organic farm management and best harvesting practices by the organization. Rather than the process at home, members supply freshly harvested coffee cherries to ASPROGUATE’s centralized wet mills for processing, in an effort to maximize cup quality and minimize the risk of the defect. At the wet mill, cherry deliveries are re-sorted for ripeness and size, rinsed of any dust or debris, and de-pulped. Fermentation is typically overnight but processing managers will adjust the time based on ambient temperatures and time of year. After fermentation is complete all coffee is patio-dried for 10-15 days, again depending on local temperatures. In addition to harvest management and marketing, ASPROGUATE has a technical staff in the field year-round, distributing fertilizer and advising farms on the management techniques needed throughout the year.

ASPROGUATE also provides educational scholarships for associates’ children on a need basis, and in the past year put a lot of resources into the distribution of personal protective equipment to support farmers through harvest during the spread of COVID-19.

La Rosa Costa Rica

Costa Rican cooperatives are like symphonies. Or at least that is the sensation you get at Cooperativa de Productores de Café y Servicios Múltiples de Naranjo R.L. (Coopronaranjo) where every aspect of coffee is included in their repertoire. Coopronaranjo has ecologically designed instruments to handle every aspect of post-harvest processing and it all runs on hydropower. But it’s not just mill equipment that makes a big impression. This cooperative also has an organic fertilizer production plant that uses vermiculture to convert coffee pulp back into low-cost organic fertilizer. And if worms aren’t to your taste, Coopronaranjo also operates a local supermarket and sells roasted coffee for national consumption. With more than 2000 producer-members from the Canton of Naranjo within the province of Alajuela, Costa Rica, this cooperative is designed to receive cherries from many small farms and harmonize the coffee into a well-tuned regional blend called La Rosa.

Finca El Gobiado Orange Bourbon

El Salvador Finca El Gobiado Orange Bourbon Natural GrainPro is sourced from Finca Gobiado, a family owned operation located near the town of Concepcion de Ataco in the Illamatepec mountain range within the department of Ahuachapan, El Salvador. The Alfaro family has been cultivating coffee for four generations on the 30-acre farm. This bourbon varietal is meticulously picked and sorted, and then placed on raised beds and turned regularly for more than 20 days to ensure even drying. The Alfaro family has discovered through years of experience that their bourbon varietal responds exceptionally well to being processed naturally and the method also saves a tremendous amount of water resources, which is good for the environment.