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We’re proud to bring to Canada a new blend that’s brimming with ooey, gooey flavors of rich caramel and bakers chocolate, imported from Guatemala’s Mataquescuintla highlands. Grown by 11 members of the Cafe Colis Resistencia group, “La Resistencia” is a smooth way to start your winter mornings, yet for the farmers who grew it, things have been anything but smooth.
This is “resistance coffee” in so much more than name only. Started by Alex Reynoso to help small producers from Guatemala’s Indigenous Xinka nation develop international markets for their coffee, CCR’s work helps support the community’s ongoing peaceful resistance to the Escobal silver mine, built illegally on their land and owned by a Canadian-based extractive firm. (See also: our recent coffee from Alvin Rodriguez.)
Not only have mining operations destroyed ancestral lands and disrupted local ecosystems, the scales of Guatemala’s coffee production tip in favor of politically elite landowners of European and Mestizo descent with 90% of Mataquescuintla’s indigenous residents reliant on the industry’s meagre wages. This mountainous area is also isolated, providing little infrastructure or access to tools or analytics for farmers to become more financially autonomous. To add, climate change has brought erratic growing seasons, unprecedented drought, and the spread of roya (or “coffee rust,” a fungus that attacks Arabica plant leaves).
And yet, demand for coffee from this region has surged on the backs of this inspiring homegrown labour and solidarity for CCR’s work within the roasting community. In particular, Semilla’s multi-tiered commitment of support has been instrumental, having purchased all available coffee from this outfit since 2018, which helped secure microlot level prices and international export starting in 2022, and providing pro-bono cupping analyses.
Cafe Colis Resistencia has built resilience into this field blend of Pache San Ramon, Catui, and Anacafe 14 (a high-yield natural hybrid plant super resistant to rusting), to fight back against water shortage and climate chaos. They’ve obtained multiple Penagos eco-pulpers for local growers to depulp and process their coffees close to home, relying less on wasteful municipal centers and strengthening the path to profit sustainability.
It’s progress through resistance! For added support, we are donating $0.50 cents from every bag sold at retail towards Semilla’s microlending fund. If you feel compelled to make a larger contribution, please visit this direct link!
In the cup, we taste caramel brittle, baker’s chocolate and dried apple.
