| Country | Guatemala |
|---|---|
| Farm | El Paraiso, Huehuetenango |
| Varietal | Arabica bourbon a caturra |
| Processing | Washed |
| Crop | March 2024 |
| Partnership | since 2022 |
| Flavour | Fruity & Elegant |
Urisar Ferneldy
Young and enthusiastic farmers are the future of coffee. More and more young people are leaving coffee farming because it is becoming increasingly difficult with changing natural conditions and low prices on coffee markets. Fortunately, this is not the case for Urisar Ferneldy, who believes that through specialty coffee, he can build a successful business. Thanks to the power of social media, his enthusiasm was noticed by San Miguel Coffees, and they began to collaborate with him and connect him with roasters who share a similar outlook on the world of coffee.
We discovered Urisar through a cupping session in San Miguel, where his coffees were among the most complex, with the elegant fruitiness typical of the Huehuetenango region. From the following year, we included a stop in Huehue in our itinerary during our visit to Guatemala to see how Urisar continues to expand his production and experiment with other varieties and processing methods.
How does this coffee taste?
Jarda, our head roaster, noted in his cupping form during this year's spring session in Guatemala: apricots, milk chocolate, honey, and lightly tropical fruit.
Our barista from Šálek, Tashi, says it's a great coffee for every day that you won't get tired of.
They selected several smaller lots that together gave 30 bags of green coffee. That's roughly a third of what Urisar produces on his farm.
El Paraiso Farm
The farm has an area of 16 ha and is located on a steep hill at an altitude of 1800 - 2050 meters above sea level. Currently, in addition to the bourbon, typica and caturra varieties, he is trying to plant the popular SL 28, geisha, pacamara or even moka at the highest points of the farm.
We were surprised by how small is Urisar's coffee processing facility. There is a small processing station with two fermentation tanks in the backyard and a plot with 60 drying beds above the house.
The power of Instagram
Vision
Urisar is a devoted and enthusiastic young man. In addition to producing his own coffee, he is also dedicated to improving the cultivation and processing of his neighbors' coffee, which he then helps to get to exporters. In addition to his 150 bags of coffee in parchment, he operates with another 1000 bags of his neighbors. He would like to build a larger facility for quality control and coffee roasting. Currently, he only has limited opportunities to taste his coffee and is dependent on quality control in a faraway San Miguel.
Huehuetenango
Until recently, Huehuetenango was a relatively hard-to-reach region on the border with Chiapas, Mexico. It took 10 hours to drive from Antigua to the capital of the region. Then another 3 hours to the farms around La Libertad. Fortunately, a regular service, known in the coffee community as the "Coffee Buyers Express", has started flying again.
Washed process
Freshly harvested coffee cherries are placed into water tanks. Where all the unnecesary dirt and rubbish stay and only fully riped cherries get selected. After washing cherries in tanks, coffee skin and flash are removed. Coffee seeds are fermented for 36-48 hours. Through fermentation you lose the last protective layer of coffee cherries which is washed away afterwards in water canals. Washed and clean coffee beans are placed on African beds and dried for 10 days.
In addition to the classic washed method, Urisar has been experimenting with other types of processings, such as honey and dried processed coffee. But we still prefer the washed ones, where the flavor quality of Huehue coffees stands out beautifully.
San Miguel Coffees
The year 2022 was significantly weaker due to the drought, and the harvests of the producers we cooperate with every year dropped by up to half. We were forced to look for new opportunities for cooperation. We reached out to Adrian Cabrera, whom we met years ago at an internship in Costa Rica. His family runs the San Miguel Coffees - coffee export company, processing station and several farms of their own. During our visit, we selected coffees from several producers. Urisar's excited us the most. So San Miguel becomes our next regular stop when visiting Guatemala.
