***These are the words of Shared Source, importer of Ben’s coffee***
BENJAMIN LOPEZ
SAN ANTONIO HUISTA, HUEHUETENANGO
On his farm El Aguacate, Benjamin farms Yellow and Red Caturra, with a little bit of Red Bourbon at 1750masl. His farming is very biodiverse; coffee grows on lush soils full of organic matter and teaming with ample ground cover, and is interplanted with a fantastic array of native shade and orchard trees. Chemical inputs are used only when urgently needed, mostly when there is a great risk of Roya. Soils are maintained with large amounts of organic compost and retain water throughout the dry season, keeping the farm as healthy and resistant to disease and drought as possible.
Processing is carried out on the farm. Pickers are paid high prices to selectively harvest only fully ripe cherries, especially necessary with the Yellow Caturra, where it’s more difficult to identify optimum ripeness. Cherries are depulped the day of picking and fermentation is carried out without water in a small concrete tank. Conditions are cold and the tank is ceramic lined.
The parchment coffee is fully washed after a minimum of 24hours, sometimes longer, and density sorted prior to being slowly sun dried on the patio in a 5cm layer, constantly turned, to ensure drying is even and not too quick.
Ben’s father Taedo gave his two sons part of his farm to manage themselves. We buy directly from all three gentlemen.
Tadeo Lopez and his 10 brothers and sisters grew up in very poor conditions, Tadeo went without shoes and adequate clothing and the family struggled to meet their basic needs. When he got married he migrated to Mexico seasonally to earn money to support the family, with the money he purchased parcels of coffee, bit by bit, which began to improve their livelihood and changed their lives completely. Tadeo was now able to sustain his young family. He planted coffee on small parcels he also inherited from his father that had previously been used for cattle and sugar cane. Not much better than subsistence farming, coffee offered Tadeo and many traditional landholders like him, the opportunity for real and meaningful development. But more recently the volatility of the coffee market and low prices means that covering costs of production has become increasingly difficult. It’s an all too common story to hear than in Huehuetenango the future of smallholder coffee production is very uncertain into the future. But there is hope. With his children, Tadeo has been working very hard to tap into niche, quality-focused markets by changing practices: paying pickers more to grab only fully ripe cherries, depulping the same day, better post-harvest practices like clean fermentation tanks and dryers.
By improving quality they’re receiving higher prices than ever before, they can now cover the cost of production of coffee and their living costs, and are increasing their living standards year on year.
Tadeo had only two children to be able to send them both to school, which is a significant generational shift from the culture of having lots of children. Ben, an agricultural engineer, is a technical expert in post-harvest processes, and he has been able to put into practice what he’s learnt academically on his father’s farm.
In their own words: We’re so happy to have found a final buyer who pays well, and it’s been agreat pleasure working with us. They want to keep improving the quality of their coffee so we enjoy an ever-great cup of Guatemalan coffee. And with the higher prices we will pay, they’ll keep re-investing in the farm and in their quality of living. Because at the end of the day, coffee quality is most meaningfully reflected in how the producer lives.
PRICE TRANSPARENCY
We purchase parchment coffee directly from the family, quetzals are transferred straight to their bank account upon receipt of parchment at our chosen mill. We pay for transport from Huehuetenango to the mill. We paid 1600 Quetzales per quintal (100 pounds of parchment) for Benjamin’s coffee. At times throughout harvest, the local rate was around 650Q/quintal, this at a time where cost of production is 700-800Q/quintal. This purchase represents the highest price the family has received for their coffees.
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Black Cherry, Dark Chocolate, Oatmeal Cookie.
340g
***These are the words of Shared Source, importer of Antonio’s coffee***
ANTONIO MEDINA
Finca La Colina
San Martin Jilotepeque CHIMALTENANGO, GUATEMALA 2017/18 crop.
100% Caturra, 1700 masl, Shared Source independent purchase from a smallholder.
Just one quarter of Antonio’s property is planted to coffee, the rest is native forest, protected by Antonio and monitored by the government who support Antonio finantially to protect native flora and fauna. Similarly, the water Antonio uses for processing comes from the farm and is protected. The forest on his farm is certified by the National Institution of Protection of Forrests (INAB).
He farms 64 manzanas of coffee, half in Caturra half in Borbon, the latter is currently re- growing after pruning. Havest waa down this year due to drought over the flowering period.
Antonio is a fourth generation grower, twenty years in himself. He has always just sold cherry, like the vast majority of Guatemala’s small producers, and just four years ago started drying his coffee to sell parchment at differentiated prices. He has five daughters, no sons, and he is able to put them all through university thanks to selling specialty coffee. Selling parchment at differentiated prices has allowed Antonio to give his daughters opportunities he never had himself. Antonio has given the upper part of his farm to members of the local indigenous community who work on his farm.
Antonio has been processing specialty coffee for several years now, placing several times in the Cup of Excellence. In 2015 he placed 8th in fact.
Traditional tank fermentation takes 36 hours, followed by traditional patio drying over eight days. To reduce the amount of water used, Antonio has a demucilager to mechanically wash the fermented coffee. An ecologically-minded farmer, Antonio fertilizes with top-grade and highly efficient inputs to be able to apply less frequently and in less volume, he decomposes ad composts coffee pulp before applying it back to the farm as organic fertilizer, practices manual weeding and sprays just twice a year for Roya with the most non-toxic product on the market. He has planted many native leguminous shade trees, called Chalun, his soils have large rocks and boulders which protect from erosion, and his farm is home to lots of native squirrels, rabbits and snakes.
We were introduced to Antonio through his brother-in-law, the head of one of the small associations in Huehuetenango we work with. We’re in contact via whatsapp regularly. And already planning towards next eyar’s harvest. We purchase directly from Antonio. We negotiated prices in person with him. We paid 1,500 Quetzales per quintal (100 pounds of parchment). The highest he receives from previous buyers is 1300 Quetzales. Antonio then delivered the coffee to our chosen mill, to who we pay milling and export fees separately.
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Papaya and Cashew.
340g
Our house blend currently consists of Brazil Seven Falls and El Salvador La Montaña. These coffees are both nut-centric with the Seven Falls’ roasted peanut and molasses complimenting La Montaña’s sweet caramel, brown sugar and chocolate linger. The blend includes a presence of apple or pear as the acidity. We’re constantly experimenting and tweaking this blend with an addition of other coffees, but this blend will always remain crowd-pleasing, versatile a solid choice for milk-based drinks.
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Roasted Peanut, Chocolate, Caramel.
340g
This is a really nice decaffeinated coffee by Swiss Water, and it’s a Congo coffee which is great to see. We’ve been selecting top offerings for decaf and we don’t see ourselves going back. The lack of decaffyness and the clear origin flavours are something we’re willing to pay high prices for.
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Strawberry Jam and Chocolate Malt.
340g
Coffee subscriptions to suit your needs.
At the beginning of each month we’ll select our favourite and most suitable coffees for your brewing method of choice and send your monthly coffee supply directly to your door!
You click, we do the rest. Easy peasy.