During my recent stay in Antigua, Guatemala, one of the first activities I booked was a coffee farm tour organised by De La Gente. Whether you're a coffee lover or just want to learn more about it, the half-day tour is a great way to learn more about how coffee is grown and meet some of the farmers whose dedication makes it all possible.
I love to take coffee farm tours when I visit coffee-producing countries, and I've been lucky enough to take tours in several origins, including Indonesia, Uganda, Kenya and Costa Rica. I was excited to add Guatemala to my list!
I spent three days in Antigua, which is in one of Guatemala's main coffee regions and which has a fantastic speciality coffee scene. Various companies run coffee tours from Antigua, but a few coffee friends had specifically recommended De La Gente's tour.
Lake Atitlán is another major Guatemalan coffee region, so depending on your itinerary you could also consider taking a coffee tour there.
De La Gente's Antigua coffee tour: what to expect
De La Gente is a social enterprise that works with around 160 producers across four coffee regions to increase economic opportunities. They support farmers to form cooperatives and provide training on agronomy and processing, helping them boost quality and access new markets for their coffee.
They also run coffee tours, which represent an extra revenue stream for farmers. The tour takes four hours and costs US $38, including shuttle transfers to/from Antigua, a bag of coffee beans and Spanish–English interpretation. My Spanish is decent but it was handy to have the translation for some technical terms.
You can book online but if you're travelling solo, you may need to wait until closer to the time for a confirmed tour or pay a $20 supplement for a private tour. I emailed a few weeks in advance and they added me to the waiting list, booking me on once there was a confirmed tour.
I joined one of the morning tours and headed to the pick-up point, La Ermita de Santa Lucía church on the southwest side of Antigua, for 8:45 am. The 16 farms in the cooperative are located in San Miguel Escobar, a few miles south of Antigua, at the foot of Volcán de Agua.
Meeting the producers behind the coffee
It took us about 20 minutes to reach the house of Eduardo and Francisca Hernández. Eduardo has been farming for 30 years, growing beans and sweet potatoes as well as coffee. The couple have four children: their daughter Ingrid is also a coffee farmer in the same cooperative.
After learning more about their farm and family, we took the short but steep walk up through the foothills of the now-extinct Volcán de Agua to one of the cooperative's farms.
Coffee production from seed to cup
The volcano is 3,760 metres tall and coffee is grown up to altitudes of about 2,000 metres; the fertile, volcanic soils are ideal for coffee. Three varieties of Arabica coffee are grown in the area — Bourbon, Caturra and Catui — which were imported by the Spanish.
The farm we visited was fairly small — about 4 cuerdas (a cuerda is about 33x33 metres square) — but produces a lot of coffee. The harvest season begins in December, reaching its peak in January to March. During our visit in late November, we already spotted a few ripe, red cherries amid the green and yellow.
Eduardo then talked us through the coffee production process, from seed to cup, starting with producing and planting seedlings. It's a labour-intensive process that takes three years for plants to first produce cherry and seven years to reach stable production.
The trees need regular maintenance, including pruning to promote growth. Producers intercrop coffee with trees such as Grevillea, which provide shade for the coffee, add nitrogen into the soil and produce wood for cooking.
During the harvest season, Eduardo hires six women from the village to help hand-pick the coffee. This represents an additional income source for the women, of whom one is a widow and another a single mother, helping them support their households.
De La Gente supported the farmers to form their cooperative, Eduardo explained, and helped them focus on the quality and consistency needed to attract and retain customers, especially in international markets. Prior to joining the coop, he said, he would sell coffee to coyotes (intermediaries) and the prices paid were much lower.
Coffee from the farms in the same coop is combined, so it's important for all the producers to follow the same standards and practices. One farmer, who trained with Anacafé (Asociación Nacional del Café), handles roasting for the coop.
A glimpse into coffee processing and roasting
Back at the Hernándezes' house, Francisca showed us how they process and roast the coffee. There are different steps involved depending on the process (washed or natural). Once the pulp is removed from the cherry, the machine below removes the parchment, yielding green coffee beans that are ready for roasting.
Next, Francisca demonstrated coffee roasting on a traditional stovetop called a comal. We helped out by keeping the beans moving around to avoid burning the coffee.
We had a go at grinding the coffee on a traditional Mayan grinding stone. Made of volcanic stone, this metate has three legs, symbolising the three Mayan periods of life. The technique is a lot harder than it looks: it's all in the wrist action!
Francisca brewed some coffee on the stove and we finally got to enjoy it along with biscotti-like cookies called champurradas while we sat around the dining table, listening to more of their stories about their family and farm life.
I also stayed for a tasty lunch ($10) of chicken, rice and veggies, during which we talked with Eduardo and Francisca about Guatemalan coffee culture. Children start drinking coffee quite young and adults will drink coffee late into the night — no decaf needed as most people have a high caffeine tolerance.
Locally grown coffee: the best souvenir from Antigua
The tour price includes one 12 oz bag of coffee and I bought an extra bag from Eduardo. At the start of the tour, he'd asked us what kind of coffee we enjoyed and he remembered that I liked naturally processed coffees and brought out a bag for me.
Although the coffee was roasted a little darker than I normally go for, it tasted great, especially the natural coffee, which had lovely fruity flavours brewed through my V60. And it's always that bit more special to brew and drink a coffee grown by a farmer you've met in person on a farm you've visited.
If you're interested in coffee and want to find out more about how it's grown and produced, I'd highly recommend De La Gente's tour. It was informative, engaging and very well organised; our interpreter was great too. De La Gente also provide a full breakdown of where the tour fees go.
Best of all was meeting Eduardo and Francisca and getting to hear from them directly about their lives, their family, their farm and their passion for producing great coffee. It was the perfect end to my short but well-caffeinated stay in Antigua!
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