Guatemala "Forestal"

Description

We carefully roast this Guatemalan coffee to a dark level that brings out all of the potential locked inside these beans. The result is a full-bodied, wonderfully aromatic coffee that has a bold flavor and long finish with notes of malt, dark chocolate and baking spice.

This delightful fair trade organic coffee is grown on small family-owned farms at 5,000 feet in the mountains near the municipality of Santa Cruz Barillas, Guatemala by Asociación Barillense de Agricultores (ASOBAGRI). The spectacularly rugged terrain in this part of Guatemala has served to preserve the indigenous heritage, distinct clothing and dialects that can vary from one mountain ridge to the next. In this cultural oasis, ASOBAGRI has become an important bridge to the international coffee community.

With more than 1,900 members, ASOBAGRI has the enormous task of providing training and technical support that is appropriately tailored to the needs of its farmers. Strategies like using coffee pulp to make organic fertilizers reduces the transportation costs associated with purchasing fertilizer from afar, and at the same time, creates an abundant source of organic plant nutrition that ensures better yields and quality. Drying practices are also exquisitely uniform among members who use mobile raised beds that can be stacked and covered at night to protect the coffee and then unstacked and spread out during the day to dry the coffee in the sun. Fair trade funds are used to operate centralized warehouses and a cupping lab where producers get immediate feedback on coffee quality.