Overview
This is the third consecutive season that coffee from Armando Quinteros has been sold on the international market, and we've once again purchased nearly his entire harvest. We’ve been intentionally increasing our volume from this area of Guatemala the past few years in continued solidarity with the Cafe Colis Resistencia group. Armando Quinteros owns a 2 hectare farm, El Matazano, in a remote region called El Volcanito - located near the town of Casillas. More generally speaking, this coffee growing region is around a 3 hour drive directly East from Antigua, where we source a large portion of our Guatemalan coffees with Beneficio Bella Vista.
El Volcanito is almost entirely populated by Xinca coffee growers. Armando has been growing coffee here his entire life, following the footsteps of previous generations of his family. He’s one of the relatively newer members of the group to take on the responsibility of fully processing and drying his coffee, which is a stark contrast to the more common method of selling cherry cheaply to intermediary buyers. The collective of growers in El Volcanito purchased a small depulper in 2021 that's used communally during the harvest season. 2022 was their first time processing coffees themselves, and the results so far are extremely successful. We’re excited to continue working with this group for many years to come.
Semilla illuminates that, “This is no easy feat for growers like this as they are accustomed to being paid as soon as fruit is off the tree. Even if the price is typically very low, it’s cash in hand and allows them to pay their workers and to feed their families. Transitioning to specialty requires taking on loans in order to make it through the harvest which can be very costly given the local interest rates.”
Like all other producers that Semilla works with in this region, Armando Quinteros a true land defender and active member of the peaceful resistance against the Escobal silver mine. For more in depth information surrounding the Xinca resistance, the formation of Cafe Colis Resistencia, and more recent updates of their activity, we encourage you to check out this article published by the LA Times, Luis Solano’s analysis, and the full packet of information provided by our friends at Semilla.
This year’s selection from Armando Quinteros exemplifies all you could want in a classically comforting Guatemalan coffee! It offers a full body, heavy sweetness, and familiar dominant flavors of milk chocolate, brown sugar, and nut butter. Armando’s coffee in particular showcases a juicy, cooked fruit acidity that brings to mind flavors of cherry pie. We’re tasting: orange, cherry, apple juice, almond butter, nutella, nougat, vanilla, root beer, baking spices, tootsie roll, milk chocolate.
Relationship
Our close importing partner, Semilla Coffee, shared with us, “The name Cafe Colis Resistencia builds off the storied history of resistance amongst the Xinca peoples, which traces its lineage back to the era of contact by Spanish conquistadors.” Generations of Xinca peoples, who initially banded together in resistance against colonization, have now formed a common collective in the face of a mining operation that’s destroying their lands. In short, the Escobal mine was established despite hundreds of complaints between 2011 and 2013, citing a lack of good faith and severely inadequate environmental impact assessments. Notable effects of the operations have been collapsing houses due to subterranean mining, freshwater springs completely drying up, and fish populations dying off in nearby lakes. The culmination of years of protests led to establishing a blockade in front of the mine’s entrance in 2017, and the government finally recognizing the rights of the Xinca peoples, ruling in their favor, and shutting down the mine. Though the mine is still closed today, Cafe Colis Resistencia remains active in their resistance. They’ve established encampments in the towns of Casillas and Mataquescuintla, keeping watch 24 hours a day and stopping all trucks entering the area that may be carrying mining material.
Despite the many challenges facing Cafe Colis Resistencia, they’re a collection of extremely passionate and dedicated people who are growing absolutely delicious coffee. Semilla’s work with them has always been to primarily assist in the development of an international market in North America, and to do so despite the fact that their coffee quality may not quite be as high as it could be. Semilla has made big efforts to assist in the transition into specialty coffee over the last few years. They share, “Our goal with this is not only quality - it stems from our belief that part of the cycle of oppression in coffee comes from a lack of access to information that keeps small producers dependent on local buyers and other gatekeepers in the industry who can dictate price and set limits on a producer’s possibilities. As we see this group taking steps every year towards being able to independently process, market, and sell their own coffee, it allows us to feel confident that their success is not dependent only on a single buyer group who wishes to support them and puts them in a better place to advocate for themselves, both locally and internationally.”
This is a project built on collaboration, trust, and risk-sharing. Through our support, which we plan to continue growing in the future, we hope to position ourselves as a stable buyer and a platform upon which to center the stories of this coffee producing group. Many thanks to the folks at Bows Coffee and Semilla Coffee, who established the initial connection to Cafe Colis Resistencia and have been organizing all of the logistics for export/import since 2018.
Processing
A few years back the majority of the producers within the larger Cafe Colis Resistencia collective relied on a local wet mill for processing. Though this service helped tremendously in the first few years of exporting internationally, issues would continually emerge. Many producers within the group are now investing money towards home fermentation and drying set ups.
In 2021, Armando and the El Volcanito group purchased a depulper to complete their community beneficio, complete with solar dryers (think greenhouse) and raised beds.
2022 marked the first season that they experienced this total control over the processing of their coffee. We’ve only seen these coffees get better and better each year since!
Cherries are first sorted and floated to remove defects. They’re then stored in sealed plastic bags under shade for 48 hours to begin the fermentation process in cherry. The cherries are then depulped and the wet parchment is left to dry ferment, again in sealed plastic bags, for an additional 40 hours. Once rinsed, the coffee is dried on raised beds for 15 - 17 days.
Brewing
Armando Quinteros is a straightforward coffee that benefits from relatively tighter grind sizes. Aim for a brew ratio around the 1:16 - 1:17 (coffee:water) range to accentuate the big body and heavy sweetness this coffee has to offer. The ideal brew should have a creamy milk chocolate sweetness with a balanced fruited acidity like cherry pie or peach cobbler.
If your coffee tastes overly nutty, slightly sour, and the mouthfeel is thin or watery - like boiled peanuts - try grinding finer.
If your coffee tastes more like bittersweet chocolate (versus the ideal sweeter, milk chocolate flavors) and the mouthfeel is cloying and gritty - like cocoa powder - try grinding coarser.
