"Welcome to Five Senses Coffee"

Central America is a coffee geek’s dream, with stacks of countries producing world class beans — as well as plenty of beautiful people! Jen and Ben were lucky enough to live the dream, heading off to see some of the outstanding coffee on offer in Guatemala and El Salvador. Jen has generously sent us her diary of the Bennifer journey, so prepare to get a little envious…

We finally touch down in Guatemala City and catch a cab straight to Antigua (a city in the central Highlands of Guatemala), where we base ourselves for the next eight days. The last couple of weeks were great, but the change of scenery is timed perfectly, as we’ve pretty much had our fill of courses, conferences, parties and stuffy hotels. Since this is our first trip to Central America, we’ve come without much of an agenda. The real idea of this impromptu visit is to go with the flow and establish some footing in a region we know so well in theory, but so little in practice.

Visiting a producing country is all about building a strong and mutually beneficial relationship with the region and its producers. So as we rock up at the very tail end of the harvest, we are not worried about the lack of ripe cherries and photo ops — that’s not why we’re here. Arriving without a plan, we are counting on this trip to develop organically through some of the connections we made in Atlanta at the World Barista Championship. Lucky for us it does, indeed, happen that way, and we even manage to squeeze in a quick trip to El Salvador.

Our first stop is in Antigua, at the Los Pastores Mill, where we meet up with Eduardo the manager and local buyer who is happy to show us around. Los Pastores has both a wet and dry mill and they are only buying ripe cherries from a smallish group of farmers just north of Antigua. This means all the pulping, washing, fermentation, drying, sorting and hulling is done on-site, giving them good control. Eduardo explains that any coffee bagged and stamped as Los Pastores has to pass certain quality standards. Their goal is to not just make specialty grade, but to allow buyers to create a reasonable expectation of a quality and taste profile for that particular region/mill; in other words, to develop a brand. Anything that isn’t up to standard is sold under a different name – often locally, or as a lower grade.

At this time of year, the harvest is over and the patios are empty, which means all the action is happening indoors where the coffee is stored and held in parchment. The men are busy hulling and packing, while the women complete the final hand sorting in preparation for shipping. Eduardo gives us a handful of samples to take home and drives us back via the scenic route, providing us with an impressive view of Volcan de Agua (Antigua’s largest volcano) and its surrounding farms.

Back in Antigua, we spend the next couple of days walking around, making calls and planning our next move. This gives us a bit of time to sit back and enjoy some much needed R & R in the form of local food and music. Over dinner, we plan a trip the following morning to Panajachel, which is a small town a couple of hours away, on the famous Lake Atitlan. The volcanic lake is stunning and (much like Antigua) is surrounded by three volcanoes, two of which are active. It is also home to many small Mayan villages, a couple of which we manage to visit by boat. As the region supports extensive coffee growth, without planning, we stumble across numerous coffee plantations, mills, patios and fermenting coffee on our brief visit. We also manage to squeeze in a visit to the Crossroads Café where we meet Michael and family (originally from California) who have been living, roasting and serving locally grown coffee from a gas flame heated / foot pump activated boiler lever machine for the last nine years. It was a real treat. We take another bus back to Antigua, but it’s not long before we make plans to hit the road again.

The Cup of Excellence international jury was being held the following week in El Salvador and Christian Schaps from Mercanta kindly offered us a last minute ride, as well as the chance to visit a couple farms. We all meet up at Mercanta in Guatemala City the following day and hit the road for El Salvador, which is a short two-three hour drive. We got started early the following morning and met up with Rafael and Carmen, who took time to let us explore their farm ‘La Fany’. Carmen casually jokes about the name, as Ben and I have a teeny snicker. She says the farm has been in their family for over five generations and the name probably comes from one of the women in the family. The farm is just outside of the small town of Apaneca, (which translates as ‘River of Winds’) and is the highest city in El Salvador (1,455 metres above sea level).

This explains the large, shrub-like trees that grow tall and thin in a box shape around the coffee trees, acting as wind barriers. It seems this is unique to El Salvador and, more particularly, this region, and from a distance it looks like a ’waffled’ hillside. The trees at La Fany are looking a little bit stressed at the moment, as it is not long after harvest and the December/January winds, which are at their strongest, have stripped off quite a few leaves. Carmen kindly answers all our questions, as Rafael inspects his trees closely, and we move further into the farm.

To my surprise, they have led us to a small pocket in La Fany that has about ten trees that have blossomed early due to some extra water from a nearby catchment. It’s a beautiful and rare sight as the whole flowering process lasts only a fleeting two days, so we feel very lucky to have seen it. Although I’ve stuck my nose in many a coffee blossom before, the overwhelming fragrance of citrus and jasmine gets us all a bit giddy and I can only imagine what it must be like when the entire farm is in flower (only a short week away). The good news is that a healthy flowering means a good harvest, and according to Carmen, things are looking good for this next crop.

We also get a chance to stop at Finca El Carmen in the nearby town of Ataco, where we spend the better part of the afternoon exploring the mostly Bourbon farm. The trees are not as stressed, as the location of the farm shields it from some of the harsher winds. Although the harvest is over, the farm cycle continues and we get a better look at some traditional El Salvadorian pruning. The day is just about over and we head back to the hotel, where we spend the evening catching up and mingling with the many familiar faces that have now arrived for the week of COE.

We spend our last day making the trek back to Guatemala City, and meet up with Ricardo Zeleya who takes us to his farm, Santa Clara, on the southern slopes of Volcan de Agua. Like most farms in Antigua, Santa Clara has been in the family for generations as the cost of land here makes it near-impossible for people to buy and start new coffee farms. As we four-wheel drive up to 1,890 metres above sea level (the highest point of the farm), we can’t help but notice how immaculate, lush and organised everything is. The farm consists of mostly Bourbon and Caturra, as well as some baby Geishas as a side project. They are fully equipped with both wet and dry mills, and a very large and new (as of last year) mechanical dryer. We see beautiful nurseries, new plantation areas, worm compost, lush plants and immaculately pruned shade trees.

During the harvest, they employ up to 400 workers to help with picking the ripe cherries by hand. Picking lasts an average of 110 days. Each lot, from each day, is cupped and assessed before they are blended together and sold. Santa Clara is within the geographical bounds of Antigua and can therefore stamp their bags with the ’Genuine Antiguan’ stamp and seal provided by APCA (Antiguan Coffee Producers Association). Ricardo’s brother-in-law, Rony Ascensio, spends the day with us and, although we don’t have time to visit his farm (Santa Ana la Huerta) in Sierra de las Minas, it’s somewhere we would really like to see on our next visit.

Sadly it’s already time to go and we head back to the city and catch a flight to San Francisco where we spend the next four days. What can I say? It’s a beautiful city with a really friendly coffee community. The crew at Ritual are all very welcoming and accommodating; they let us sneak downstairs to join a staff cupping. They even sample-roasted a few of our samples (from the farms), giving us a preview of what we have to look forward to. We rent a car and hit up Barefoot Coffee Roasters, Four-Barrel and even manage to spend a day visiting the Napa Valley. It all happens so quickly and, before we know it, we’re saying our farewells at LAX as Ben boards his flight back to Melbourne.

The journey was truly inspiring, and I can’t wait to go back and start building a Direct Trade relationship with some of the Guatemalan growers, so that Five Senses can bring some of these amazing coffees to your cup.