This past February, Pete (our founder) and Dom (the team lead in our roastery) had the privilege of visiting Guatemala, one of the places we source our coffee beans from. Seattle Coffee Company purchases roughly 30 containers per year directly from our various origins, and the purpose of this trip was to establish direct contact with the producers of our green coffee.
Esquipulas Cooperative
The trip started in the Huehuetenango region, right on the border with Mexico. The Esquipulas cooperative, which operates in this region, represents roughly 240 small-scale producers who collectively produce about 15 containers of coffee per year. Seattle Coffee Company purchases five of these containers, making up one-third of all their sales, while Union UK (our sourcing partner) purchases another four.
Pete and Dom met with members of the cooperative, who showed them their facilities, warehouse, and processing methods. They were also shown the incredible work the cooperative does for the community of La Libertad. Pete and Dom visited five of their small-scale farms, where they learned about their operations and the support they provide to producers through education, technology, and access to finance.
Sertosa Dry Mill
They then travelled with members of the cooperative to Guatemala City, where they visited a dry mill called Sertosa. Esquipulas has a long-standing relationship with this mill, where parchment coffee is processed and packed into containers ready for export. Parchment coffee refers to the dried coffee beans with a layer of skin around them, almost like a little pouch. The producer delivers his coffee to the warehouse where the bags are weighed and a moisture reading is taken. The moisture must be between 12-13% . If acceptable, the producer is given a note that he will submit to the co-op and get paid.
La Candelaria Estate
Next, they travelled to another region in Guatemala, Antigua. The setup in Antigua is quite different. Seattle Coffee Company receives between three and five containers of coffee from a farm called La Candelaria, which is managed by Luis Pedro. Luis Pedro oversees multiple larger farms, but despite their size, the emphasis remains on quality. Luis Pedro and his assistant, Melanie Herrera Moreira, have made incredible advances in organic farming methods to reduce their reliance on fertilisers and create a healthy microbiome within the crops and their environment.
As a company, now that we have learned firsthand everything that goes into our green coffee, we are more inspired than ever to maintain the highest quality standards. What we do matters, not just to us but also to the communities in the countries where we source our coffee.
Have a scroll through the gallery to see some of the trip highlights!
