Description
About Guatemala, Peña Roja
Huehuetenango is a municipality in the western highlands of Guatemala, running up to the border with Mexico and encompassing a lot of microclimates across its hills and valleys. Pena Roja, or red rock, lies in the foothills of Pena Blanca which peaks at 3520masl, in the Chaloum growing region .
Cooperativa Agricola Integral Peña Roja are a smaller co-op that work with a larger union of cooperatives, Fedecocagua, to help market and sell their coffee abroad. In return, they get extra investment and support as well as access to services such as agronomists that work directly with the union. In this manor they can maintain the traceability and character of their coffee and share the expertise that larger groups have access to as well as increase their network for best practices and issues fighting diseases. The co-op also provide a free nursery for children under eight in their community.
The Manager of the cooperative is Anacelto Martinez and his son, Mynor, is the head agronomist. From a start of 22 people, the cooperative now encompasses 67 men and 14 women producers.
Coffee on the 81 smallholders’ farms is picked by hand, washed and dried on patios under the sun; often those patios are actually the roofs of houses perching on the slopes and hillsides. Washed here is actually done with very little water, an initial floating stage is as expected, but the beans are commonly then pulped wet but the fermentation stage subsequent is dry. The beans are then channeled through the water flumes to the drying beds. The patios are being bolstered with the addition of some raised beds and parabolic dryers, new for 2022 harvest. These have been provided through membership of Fedecocagua and in parnership with an American NGO.
FARM/COOP/STATION: Various cooperatives.
VARIETAL: Bourbon, Catuai, Caturra, Marsellesa, San Ramon
PROCESSING: Fully washed
ALTITUDE: 1,400 to 1,700 meters above sea level
Producer: Fedecocagua
About producer Fedecocagua
Established in 1969, FEDECOCAGUA is a cooperative organization with around 20,000 members. Seventy percent of co-op members are members of indigenous groups from various regions of Guatemala, including Huehuetenango, Cobán, Verapaces, Retalhuleu, San Marcos, and Zacapa. The organisation is made up of over 150 individual co operatives that supply the coffee.
As the main exporter of coffee from Guatemala, Fedecocagua is perfectly position to provide almost everything we need at DRW from speciality microlots to undergrade stocklots via certified main grades. They are the one stop shop for all things Guatemalan. Our commercial relationship with them dates back almost to the beginning of DRW.
Their dry mill is in Palin, one hour south of Guatemala City. Holding capacity here is 350,000 quintales of parchment, and with such volume keeping on top of movements is very important. Each lot is identifiable through an individual code, with volume, cooperative name and delivery date. There are a number of collection points and warehouses in other locations such as Huehuetenango, which allows for the grouping of parchment lots before transporting to the dry mill for final prep and QC.
The Palin facility also has a 15kg Diedrich roaster for adding value to the co-operatives operations, and a cupping lab for QC of lots received and stored. The roastery has opened a new internal market for Fedecocagua.
The Camoja warehouse was designed by Gerardo’s (the head of Fedecocagua) son, and is managed by Don Jose. Being newer, it has showers, lockers, laundry rooms and even beds for the workers, as well as a cupping lab and sound storage for 75,000 bags. There are 10 fulltime staff, including a Q grader. Most of the coffee from Huehue for Fedecocagua comes through this facility. A water recycling facility is in the final stages of being operational, with an on site well providing clean water and rainwater being collected and used for watering plants and grass on teh site.
Information and pictures supplied by DR Wakefield
How to store coffee at home
To keep your coffee as fresh as possible, you need to protect your coffee from air, sunlight, heat, and moisture. These all will contribute to making it stale and lose flavour.
We suggest keeping your coffee in an airtight container, in a cool, dry cupboard. Our bags all have a de-gassing valve, to let out CO2 that the beans produce once roasted, it’s not just there to sniff the coffee, and a reusable ziplock. So if you don’t have a fancy coffee jar just push the air out the bag, zip the lock and give the bag another squeeze to get any remaining air out.
Do not store your coffee in the fridge. Roasted coffee absorbs moisture from the air (hygroscopic) and will also take up surrounding aromas. The aromas and moisture levels in the fridge will react with the coffee and delicate flavours will deteriorate.
Need help on which grind size? Click here
News Letter
Fancy 15% off a coffee order? Then sign up to our news letter for a discount code, along with being the first to know about new coffees, special offers, tips and tricks.
Want to know more about Bell’s Beans?
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.