A tale of two farms….

Santa Ana, outside of Guatemala City

Coffee in Guatemala is often divided into two worlds. Small producers such as in Hue Hue who find voice and power through the co-operative model. I saw this in action first hand in Huehuetenango and have written this up in my last journal story on this origin trip.

The other coffee production model in Guatemala is the private farms. Often these are large, farms are deeply rooted in the post colonial period, following Guatemalan independence from Spanish rule in 1821, when families or big businesses such as the United Fruit Company concentrated land into large land holdings. It is common for single families to have owned these farms for multiple generations. They also typically have more resources than small producers and can invest in agricultural techniques and processing that delivers quality consistency and volume year on year.

But there is a third way of coffee production that's emerging in Guatemala and we saw this on our visit to Santa Ana, an inspiring farm in Santa Rosa province, not too far from Guatemala City. Santa Ana is run on an entrepreneurial business model by owner Fernando 'Nando' Diaz. Nando takes an eclectic and visionary approach to coffee farming. He is an engineer by trade and took on Santa Ana in part because he has been visiting and exploring the farm ever since his father bought the estate in the late 1980s. His farm house is nestled in a beautiful valley with a colonial style terrace running around it. The house is still out of range of mobile signal and until recently was off grid and lit only with candles. Nando loves the simplicity of life on his farm and drives or walks around it on foot, accompanied by his ever-loyal Rhodesian Ridgeback called Whisky.

Other than a raw emotional connection to his farm Nando is also fascinated by innovation. With its long history of coffee farming Guatemala has very set norms for coffee growing. Nando takes mischievous joy in breaking these unwritten rules. He is currently experimenting with irrigation - a new form of terracing coffee plantations and is constantly trialing new coffee varieties including Pacamara and Geisha. He picks up many of his ideas from studying different farming techniques in other countries and brushes aside any opposition to bucking trends, even when it comes from his own management team on the farm.

Nando takes this spirit of rebellion one step further when it comes to coffee processing. Guatemala is traditionally known for producing large volumes of good quality washed coffee and this is all that the smaller producers we visited know and are capable of doing. Nando has invested in a state of art wet mill on his farm that is designed to process smaller natural lots with a range of differing varietals and methods. These include a funky co-ferment using fresh pineapples that are plentiful in his area. Nando is also investing in raised beds under cover that slows the drying process and draws out more flavour than sun drying the coffee on patios.

We cupped some early harvest samples in his all wood cupping cabin complete with a circular table cut from a single tree trunk. Bruce, Kate and myself were blown away by the range of varieties, processes and cupping notes that Nando is producing on a single farm. His focus on technical precision and quality is clearly bearing some extraordinary fruits.

Afterwards he took us on a hair raising ride in the back of his Toyota pick up, Whisky loping ahead of us like a wolf, up to a view point at dusk. Nando is encouraging a more natural habitat on his farm and has left a mix of big mature native trees scattered throughout his plantations. His farm felt wonderfully wild and rough at the edges as a result with no less than five streams to cross on the rutted dirt road into his farm.

We have sourced from Santa Ana in the past and will most certainly work with Nando and his visionary approach to coffee farming again. I had hoped to stay a few days with him on his beautiful farm but a family emergency meant that I ended up flying back earlier from Guatemala than I had planned. Thank you for the invite Nando and hopefully next time around!

Finca San Miguel Urias, outside of Antigua

I met Daniel and Maria from Finca San Miguel Urias for breakfast in a very smart speciality cafe in the historic town of Antigua in the central highlands. Designated as a UNESCO world heritage site for the town’s 16th century colonial architecture, Antigua is renown for a vibrant restaurant and cafe scene. The elegant cafe decor and offering of a choice of drip coffees seemed a long way from the road less travelled to Hue Hue, or the bumpy track up to Santa Ana. But it was inspiring to see Guatemalan businesses taking such pride in their own speciality coffee, rather than exporting all of their best beans to international markets.

Daniel and Maria were in good form, enjoying a moment of respite from parenting their three young boys all under the age of ten. I immediately liked them and recognised a younger generation of coffee farmers who are driving fresh thinking and innovation in the industry. Persuading the old guard to hand over is never straight forward and Daniel had to constantly field calls from Maria’s grandfather Don Hector who at 87 still has a firm hand on the tiller.

Maria and Daniel manage a portfolio of five coffee farms in Guatemala under the overarching brand or Rueda (Spanish for wheel). Their farms straddle both the coast and the higher ground around Antigua (1,500m). We have already sourced coffee from their Finca Concepcion, a roastery favourite in 2025. Coffees from these farms don’t have the same delicate floral notes of a high grown Hue Hue coffee, but they more than make up for this with sweetness and big notes of chocolate and stone fruits.

Daniel and Maria were keen to show us their favourite farm, Finca San Miguel Urias, which is just outside of Antigua. Developed for coffee in the early 1800s by Jesuit priests this was the first farm that Maria’s family bought back in 1903. There are still two black and white portraits of her great grandparents on the wall of the cupping room in the farmhouse, Don Felix Valdes and his much younger wife Guillermina de Valdes. Back then they farmed cattle and sugar as well as coffee.

Daniel and Maria showed us around the farm’s wet mill and drying patios, a short walk from the big colonial style house and barn where they store their processed beans. This time of year the harvest is in full swing and there is a constant cycle of fresh cherries being fermented, pulped and spread out on the extensive concrete patios. The midday sun felt unbearable as it both beat down and reflected back on us on the patios. Daniel admitted that one of the biggest challenge was the heat as his workers have to turn the coffee with long wooden rakes as often as every 45 minutes to prevent the risk of mould. Daniel and Maria are investing in covering all of their patios with overhead screens to help reduce the risk of dehydration and heat exhaustion.

Back in their coffee lab we were treated to Rueda’s full range of coffees from all five farms, including some striking anaerobic naturals lots with added yeast strains that delivered lovely notes of black cherry and apricot. Maria is a Q Grader, the highest sensory qualification in speciality coffee, and obviously takes great pride in the coffees that she curates from her farms. 

It was a real privilege to be able to cup the fresh harvest coffee from the nearby farm Concepcion while ‘in the field’ in Guatemala and I loved it. We will definitely be sourcing this coffee for our Red Stag espresso and True North retail blends later in the year. Look out for these Guatemalan beans, sourced from my trip with Javier at Caribbean Goods, landing in our roastery in August.