In December 2016, Barista and Quality Control Manager Chase Stafford, Barista and Supply Manager Morghan Wright-Johnson, along with Sean Ham and Rachel Watson, traveled to Guatemala to meet the people and places behind Guatemalan coffee.
Through Guatemala City, Antigua, Panajachel, Santa Cruz, San Tiago, Chajul, Chel, and back again, here is our story…
TripMission
Week 1
Meet coffee farmers, find amazing coffees, discover if we can source materials for Iconik merchandise from coffee origin countries.
Week 2
Tour the work being done by The Coffee Trust in Chajul and Chel.
OurRoute
We had no coffee contacts when we arrived. We showed up, looked for specialty coffee shops and began asking about where they got their beans, how their businesses worked and began to learn as much as possible about Guatemalan coffee.
On our trip from New Mexico, we realized we forgot to bring brewing equipment with us. With a 5 hour layover, we Ubered to the city to get an Aeropress, Hario grinder and some Torchy’s Tacos. At Torchy’s we met a cool couple @grandlala who started following our trip in instagram. Thanks to @grimmgram for the ride back to the airport and @Boomtown Coffee who was kind enough to send us to Guate with an awesome naturally processed coffee.
Sunday night, we arrived in Guatemala city and stayed with Sean’s cousin Bert and Marlon. The next day we explored the markets of Zone 1 by foot and traveled to a topographical map “Mapa en Relieve” built in 1905, an amazing to-scale 3D map of Guatemala.
In the afternoon, we walked to Zone 4 to check Cafe Rojo Cerezo and Cafe Paradigma. We met Rogelio, the owner of Rojo Cerezo, ordered some pourovers and cappuccinos and struck up a conversation about where we were from and what we were trying to do. We mentioned trying to get in touch with the farmer at Finca San Jeronimo. Rogelio looked excited and said, “I know him!” Thirty seconds later we were on the phone with the farmer and arranged to be picked up three days later at the docks in Santiago de Atitlan. Rogelio had not been to the farm yet and he said he would try to go too. On the phone, the farmer Giorgio mentioned knowing Iconik. When he said that, we thought maybe he was just being friendly, or didn’t quite understand what were were saying over the phone.
After our walk, we grabbed some beers downtown and then went to a very small Mayan restaurant with Bert and Marlon.
We arrived early Tuesday morning and began exploring the cobble stone streets of Antigua. A delicious breakfast first, then a we searched for a hostel for the night.
On the way to our there, we came across a small cafe called Guate Java. Javier, the manager was there and we started talking about what he was doing and how they were connecting with local farmers. Part of their business model is to find farmer’s producing great coffees and give them access to larger markets. They also have a great small batch roaster inside the cafe. I’d never had a Guatemalan naturally processed coffee before and their’s was delicious. They had one from Antigua that was really great.
While we walked around, Morghan met up with a family friend to ask her about sourcing textiles. Jorge took us to his son Wilfi’s property in San Antonio Aguas Calientes, a nearby village. The small plot of land was dotted with coffee trees, pacaya and jocote plants. The jocote is a small edible sweet fruit with a pit, the pacaya looks like a yucca plant.
On Thursday, we were off to Lake Atitlán. We arrive in Panajachel in the late morning and made our way to Crossroads Cafe where we met Michael, the owner and roaster. Michael is a rare and generous person, overflowing with excitement for the people he meets, his coffee and his family. We got to spend time with him before heading to our hostel and made plans to meet again a few days later for dinner and more conversation. He also introduced us to José Coffee in San Juan, a mid-range processor with a really cool facility on a hillside in San Pedro. We made plans to take a tour of the land of several small producers above San Juan by horseback the next morning.
Jose Coffee
We left early from Santa Cruz on Friday for San Pedro. Jose gave us a tour of his coffee shop and roaster, then we met up with Juan and his daughter Lea to continue our tour on horseback. We climbed for several hours exploring the coffee above San Juan, learning the commands in Spanish for the horses and the reign work they would best respond to.
Morghan, Chase, Rachel and our guide Lea’s father.
We negotiated an early morning trip from Santa Cruz to Santiago De Atitlan with a Launchero named Esteban and arrived at the docks around 8am. A guy named Obdi picked us up and Chase and I (Sean) jumped into the back of his pickup truck. We drove for a couple of hours through the countryside to the other side of one of the Volcanoes surrounding the lake.
Finca San Gerónimo
When we arrived, I had a weird sense that I had been there before. In 2008, I was volunteering at a ropes course at La Universidad Francisco Marroquin in Guatemala City. The group participating was from Parma Queso (the Kraft Cheese of Guatemala, dominant in the formal grocery market nation wide). Mark, the owner, was really friendly and interesting to talk to. At the end of the day, he invited me to tour his dairy. A few days later, I drove to Guatemala City from Antigua and ended up at the airport. A few minutes later, we were in Mark’s single engine plane headed for his farm. I puked when he banked it at the ocean. In spite of that the whole experience was really cool. Shortly after, we landed on a grass landing strip, I cleaned myself up and we began walking around the dairy, had lunch and then flew back to the city…
Cupping time!
Fast forward 8 years later. Giorgio, the farmer at Finca San Jerónimo began our tour by talking about cheese. He showed us the experiments they were performing with raised drying beds and kept mentioning cheese. I looked back up the road and saw a familiar bridge across a stream. Finally, I asked him if he knew anyone named Mark. He looked really confused and asked how I knew Mark. Then I recounted the story, above. He looked at me and said “Mark is my father, and you are on the same farm…”