We’re really pleased to be offering this sweet and vibrant coffee from a farm named Santa Isabel, in Cobán, Guatemala.

Santa Isabel has been producing coffee since 1875, but it’s thanks to the careful and attentive management of 5th-generation producer Luis Valdes Jr. that coffee with this clarity and poise is possible.

A large team of workers spend several months harvesting, passing over each tree up to twelve times to ensure only the ripest cherries are picked.

These cherries are processed on the farm itself in a technique involving multiple grading, fermenting, and soaking stages. The coffee then undergoes initial sun-drying on concrete patios before final drying takes place on raised beds inside a greenhouse.

Each day’s pickings are kept separate before being tasted, and the sweetest of the lots are combined to make this particular selection we’ve bought.

While this isn’t the fastest or most efficient way to get a coffee crop to market, each of these additional careful steps has a positive impact on the quality in the cup.

Cumulatively, they truly shine and we feel that the result is well worth the effort.