This coffee was produced by second-generation farmer Nery Pablo López at his farm Guacamaya. Located at 1,900m above sea level, Guacamaya is nestled in the hills that surround the small town of Ajul, in the municipality of Concepción Huista, in the state of Huehuetenango, Guatemala.

Nery has lived in Concepción Huista his whole life, and has been involved in coffee production from a very young age. He inherited the land Guacamaya sits on when he was only twenty years old, after being established as a coffee farm by his dad Lauriano Pablo. When he first took over the property, Nery noticed a guacamaya (a type of local macaw bird commonly found in the region) frequented his parcel of land, and decided to name the farm after it.

Like most farmers in the region, Nery benefits from abundant freshwater, thanks to the local Rio Azul (Blue River) and its tributaries. All coffee at Guacamaya is grown under the shade of Chalum trees (a local variety of Inga) and Gravilea, though the amount of shade needs to be managed carefully every year due to Huehue’s humid, temperate climate. The coffee, beans and maize Nery grows are also intercropped with other fruit trees like avocados, lemons, oranges, and peaches.

This lot is 100% Caturra. Nery farms with traditional techniques and organic practices, as is common in the region. Coffee pulp is recycled and dried to be used as fertiliser, and sedimentary tanks are employed to treat the water used during processing. All weeding is done manually, and few chemical pesticides or fertilisers are utilised—though fungicide is applied before flowering, to prevent roya outbreaks. The coffee is selectively hand-harvested, with most labour being provided by Nery and his family.

Harvest activities at Guacamaya began in February. Because most cherry was hand-picked by Nery and his relatives, a lot of care went into the selection of each bean, and multiple passes were required. Coffee was pre-fermented in sacks for up to 24 hours early in the harvest, though this time shortened to 12 hours once the weather began to warm up in March.

Nery has established a microbeneficio (small wet mill) with raised beds onsite, which allows him to process and dry his coffee onsite. As a member of the El Sendero Cooperative, Nery also receives training sessions at the beginning of every harvest, to go over the best practices to follow during the picking and processing of his coffee – which are key in the production of exceptional coffee

Cherries were then washed and depulped, and left to ferment overnight (or up to 12 hours). The following day, this wet parchment was washed again using fresh water from the nearby Río Azul, and laid to dry on Guacamaya’s concrete patio. Drying until beans reached an adequate and stable moisture content took around a week, and was determined by weather conditions.