Story
19-year old producer Alvin Rodriguez shares a small farm with his older brother Jhony in the high mountain department of Jalapa, Guatemala. Alvin’s 1-hectare lot is a fruit-forward field blend of Pache and Catuai varietals. Continuing the work of their family, Jhony is also a leading member of the El Volcancito community beneficio where coffees are brought in to be fermented, processed, and dried. Funded by the NGO FUNDEBASE and supported by our importer Semilla on the ground, this initiative mutually benefits both local producers in an agricultural area where 90% of residents work in the coffee industry, and the natural environment by reducing damage to local riverways by way of waste typical of mass wet mills. As members of the Indigenous Xinka nation, the Rodriguez brothers’ commitment to conservation is intimately intertwined with their identity. Here fighting for the right to exist with sovereignty and defending the rights of the land go hand in hand. Guatemala is an extremely dangerous place to be a land defender, yet this community has been in active resistance to the polluting and clear-cutting of the Canadian-managed Escobal silver mine built illegally on ancestral territories, for generations. Speaking of generational legacy, the varietals that make up Alvin’s darkly sweet blend are two of Guatemala’s most important fruits. Pache, discovered in nearby Santa Cruz Naranjo in 1949, is derived from Typica and grown in great densities due to its dwarf size. Similarly compact, Catuai, introduced here in 1970 as a cross between the highly productive Mundo Novo and Caturra from Brazil, makes up 20% of the country’s production. Alvin’s cherries were honey-processed (a hybrid between full sun dried and washed process yielding a fruit-forward, and sometimes funky taste in the cup). Seeds were removed from their cherries, rinsed and fermented in an anaerobic environment (bag), before depulping in an eco-pulper and finally dried in the sun on raised beds. In this cup, we taste blackberry jam, fresh fig and limeade.
