•• Swork Travelogue: Guatelmala ••

Swork's coffee beans have traveled a long way to reach you. On her first sourcing trip, Tricia Neal had to hop onboard a rickety airplane, then trek over winding, bumpy roads in an old Jeep to reach the birthplace of the beans--the Guatelamalan farms where the coffee is grown. She met the farmers, their families, and got down to bean business. The finalists were selected for their body, color, and richness. Then, they traveled back along the same arduous route to become the delicious cup of coffee you cradle in your hands.

I met our coffee roasting partners- Geoff, Trey, Bob, Marcus and Cara in Dallas. From there we flew to Guatemala. We were all drunk with coffee conversation by the time we landed. There were about 6 people in our group so we drove in separate cabs to the heart of the city where our hotel awaited us. We spent the evening drinking beer, eating salsa and plenty of fish tacos. We talked coffee the entire night.

We took a day to relax and get familiar with the city. The group of us walked all over the city and connected with the hustle and energy of the people. And again we ate amazing food: lots of ice cream, beer and of course fish tacos.

About an hour outside of the city was our first stop, Finca La Mandarina (Mandarina Farm) in Fraijanes 1, an incredible farm that not only handled the coffee’s growing and sorting, but also had a small wet mill 2 on the premises. Once we arrived at the estate, it was another fifteen-minute drive through the canyons on unpaved, red dirt roads. We arrived red and dusty and were greeted by an incredible family. Upon entering their mountain top farm, I could not help noticing the efforts this family made to prepare for our visit.

Visiting Finca La Mandarina was the primary reason for our journey because they produce our mark 3. We had the privilege of cupping some of the new crop with author/importer Tim Castle and Astrid Zamora, whose family owns & operates the farm. The coffee’s flavor was intense, ripe and at times a little uneven, but it had plenty of chocolate and berry sweetness, and shining acidity to spare. The lot of coffee beans that we cupped was completely unsorted, which accounted for the wild variation in the flavor; this first taste was only a peek at the potential ferocity of the mark’s new crop.

We toured the farm in the Zamora's trucks, slowly climbing and winding through the steep hillsides covered in bourbon and lanky shade trees. To my unaccustomed eyes, the parched reddish earth and stressed plants seemed lush and exotic. Peering down an impossibly steep slope, I imagined the difficulty of lugging a 100-pound sack back up that hill and struggling for footing while carefully picking only the ripest coffee cherries. It was here we met many of the indigenous people, descended from the Ancient Mayans, that live on the estate along with their families. The bright colors of their clothes, coupled with the smiles on their faces, were another reminder of why coffee means so much to me. I didn't speak the language but it was clear that they were content and very committed to the La Mandarina family. We happily plucked coffee cherries off trees and enjoyed the delicious taste.

After frolicking through the coffee bushes, we headed over to the processing area, also known as the wet mill. Watering trowels cleaned the beans once they were husked. The freshly husked beans lay drying away in the sun on expansive concrete drying patios. It was amazing to see that the beans underwent such minimal processing. The remainder of the day was spent in the sorting area. This is the area where the beans are sorted by age, washed, removed from the outer fruit, and then spread out over flat concrete for the drying process to take place. Every 45 minutes or so, an employee carefully combed over the beans with a homemade wooden rake to ensure they dried evenly.

In the sorting area, many women were at work sorting the beans into three grades: premium, middle and lower. The premium beans were perfect in color, size and smell. The remainders were divided into the other two grades. The rejected beans are later sold in the discount market.

After walking through the whole mill, we headed back to the main house. On the other side of the large plantation, the kitchen staff was busy making chicken mole, homemade tortillas, rice and salsa from scratch. The amazing dinner was an enormous treat after our long day on the farm. All of us were starving and ate to our heart’s content. Did I forget to mention we drank coffee too? Mmmmm.