La Maravilla is a family-run farm located in the heart of the lush Huehuetenango region, located to the west of Guatemala and near the border of Mexico.

The farm was first established by Guillermo Rosales and his son Mauricio, who bought the 25-hectare farm in 1997. They named it La Maravilla (‘’wonder’’) as a tribute to the beauty of the land. Back then, the farm was only accessible by horse or foot, and there was no sophisticated infrastructure, electricity or roads.

Today, La Maravilla is run by Mauricio with assistance from his son Luis and farm manager Alfonso Mata. It has become a well-established farm with machinery on-site to process quality coffee, including fermentation tanks, drying patios and a treatment water plant, along with fourteen rooms to accommodate seasonal workers during the harvest. The farm is now twenty-four hectares in size, after the family acquired their neighbour’s land.

The Rosales family is very keen on preserving the local environment at La Maravilla. Part of the estate is reserved as natural forests of cypress trees and other local tree species, which provide abundant natural water resources to the farm. The farm also grows several types of fruit trees and creole avocados. All water used during processing is treated and recycled, chemical herbicides are avoided, and vermicompost material is applied frequently to reduce the need for chemical fertilisers.

The topography of La Maravilla is steep and irregular, making harvesting very labour-intensive and time-consuming. All of the coffee is picked by hand by a skilled team of seasonal workers, who come from as far as the Quiché department, though most live locally and join the farm each year. They do multiple passes throughout the harvest to ensure only the very ripest cherries are selected.

Mauricio mainly produces fully washed coffees, such as this lot. Cherries are carefully sorted and pulped in a traditional wet mill on the same day that they are picked, using water from the Los Arroyos natural spring. Wet parchment is then fermented and sun-dried on Mauricio’s pristine patios or raised beds for 15-20 days. Once dry, the coffee is rested in parchment in a timber warehouse built on the farm.