CASA VIEJA, GUATEMALA - FILTER COFFEE

This coffee from Ismael Quinteros Orantes’s small Casa Vieja farm in Santa Rosa, Guatemala, offers notes of nectarine, marmalade and milk chocolate.

On the slopes of El Volcancito, at 1,760 metres above sea level, Ismael grows coffee on just over two hectares. He is the third generation of coffee farmers in his family. Around 60 years ago, his grandfather grew both sugarcane and coffee and found that coffee was the more profitable crop. Ismael’s own passion for coffee began in childhood, working alongside his father among the coffee trees. The work comes with plenty of challenges, such as a shortage of pickers, coffee leaf rust and the severe dry seasons brought on by climate change. Even so, he has found ways to keep producing and continually refines his processing to improve quality. His dream is to one day meet the roasters and coffee drinkers around the world who enjoy his coffee.

The ripest cherries are hand-picked and first fermented for 24 hours in sealed plastic bags under anaerobic conditions. The cherries are then pulped, and the beans are fermented for another 48 hours in sealed bags. Finally, the coffee is dried on raised African beds in indirect sunlight for 14 days. The coffee was sourced through our partner Semilla. Ismael received 2,500 quetzales per quintal of parchment coffee, while the average farmgate price in the region was 1,700 quetzales – a difference of nearly 50%.