November 2004
4 posts
1 tag
Coffee Growing and The Cherry
Hava and I picked some ripe cherries off the Coffea Arabica var. Caturra tree that lives on the same finca we do.
[a little coffee note found on www.coffeeresearch.com]
The coffee plant is a woody perennial evergreen dicotyledon that belongs to the Rubiaceae family. It has a main vertical trunk (orthotropic) and primary, secondary, and tertiary horizontal branches (plagiotropic). Two main...
1 tag
Cupping
Roasting samples with Jose using the tiny sample roaster
Wahoo…The harvest brings a flurry of activity in the country. People from all over the world come to Guatemala looking for coffees to import. People growing coffee are looking for buyers. Indigenous people follow the harvest from sea level to high altitudes working from finca to finca.
I took a boat ride across the lake with...
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Made in the Shade
The dark green shrub-like plants at the bottom are coffee plants on Finca Vega.
If you go into a $tarbucks or any other specialty coffee store they usually have extra special coffees that have seals or stickers on them: “USDA certified Organic,” “Fair Trade certified by TransFair”, or “Bird Friendly certified by the Smithsonian Institute.” All of those certification agencies are paid by...
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The Big Kites
November first is an important day here in Guatemala. It is el dia del muerto, or the day of the dead. Most villages, particularly the indigenous ones, have some kind of religious festival or tradition that they all partake in. One village, called Todos Santos, has an all day horse race where all the riders get completely drunk and see who can last the longest. It is a huge tourist...