Mercanta, the Coffee Hunter,

is a green-bean importer

noted for field trips to countries of origin,

on which roasters are very frequently

invited to accompany them and

meet growers and see farms

for themselves.

(Indeed, we at Coffee House are

privileged to have been taken on

such a trip).

In January 2007,

Stephen Hurst and Flori Marin set out

on a trip to Guatemala. 

Steve's report on his trip is, we think,

typical of the things that the

UK trade can learn from such trips to origin.  Many of us don't get the chance to see and understand such things at first hand... Steve's

reports do a good job of bringing origin to us, so to speak.

For any enquiries, we recommend that

you talk to the guy direct:

0208 439 7778

This year our annual Coffee Hunter Field Trip took Flori and I together with eight customers to Guatemala. This would be our fourth Field Trip; and we believe that these excursions are the single most important way to illustrate Mercanta’s unique way of business to our specialty coffee roaster customers.

For the customer themselves, it is a chance to meet the growers first hand, to learn about each individual farm, and to understand the tree to cup path in exacting detail.

Mercanta has recently expanded our Central American operations. Christian Schaps is our representative in the region, and 2007 will see the Mercanta Central American lab upgraded to be a model of our UK facility.

Christian and his team worked hard to put together an excellent itinerary. This is always a challenging job. Guatemala is a big, diverse country with tricky mountainous roads. Mercanta buys coffee from growers all over the map. We wanted to visit as many growers as possible without spending the entire trip on the bus. We also wanted to visit medium sized private farms as well as co-op type operations, and small growers who deliver to private mills.

We began the trip in Esquipulas at the farm of Don Fabio Solis. Located near the Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala border, Finca Las Nubes won the first (2001) Guatemala Cup of Excellence competition and Mercanta has bought the majority of Fabio’s estate grade crop ever since.

Las Nubes is a beautiful farm located at high altitude (1400m+). Fabio’s coffee is superb and his two containers/year estate grade production is fully accounted for by appreciative roaster customers.

Fabio Solis at Finca Las Nubes is one of the best untold stories of Cup of Excellence. An unknown isolated farm suffering market access and financial problems six years ago now transformed with the support of Mercanta and key roaster customers into a sustainable, improving, dynamic family business. Fabio and his family are wonderful hosts – a few of us had the good fortune to stay on the farm overnight. A marimba band entertained us at the barbeque and everyone enjoyed a delicious lunch.

Next we travelled to Coban; where the weather changed to the cloudy, damp conditions typical in this zone. Roni Asencio was our host at a small new farm called Kapil Ha. Roni is an acclaimed agronomist well known to Mercanta for many years from his efforts at Santa Ana; an excellent quality farm in the Sierra De Las Minas region. Roni has now been contracted to improve quality control and gain international markets access for three more farms. Kapil Ha (means lots of water in K’iche’ dialect) is a beautiful small farm undergoing renovation and renewal. We expect to see the first specialty grade production from Kapil Ha next season (07/08).

Roni then took us to Santa Paula – whose first direct export shipment last year was well received by European specialty roaster customers. A classic Coban with heavy bodied sweetness and less acidity than other Guatemla regions, Santa Paula is ideally suited for fine espresso blends. Roni and his team are carefully renovating Santa Paula to take account of the unique local climatic conditions. Roni treated us to a superb BBQ including a legendary piece of beef, a local turkey leg stew type of dish.

Under Roni’s stewardship, Kapil Ha, Santa Paula, and Santa Sofia are destined to become top estate for our portfolio in future seasons.

From Coban, we travelled to Lake Atitlan; on which shores we met growers from Nimak Kape harvesting on small plots alongside this beautiful high altitude, crater lake surrounded by volcanoes.

A number of small growers combine to deliver ripe red cherries to a private mill who prepares the coffee for export. Nimak Kape exhibits a winey/fruity full flavour with juicy berry notes and black cherry tastes.

We crossed Lake Atitlan in a small boat accompanied by a five litre mini barrel of Dorada Ice; which was duly consumed by the time we reached Panajachel on the other side 30 minutes later. This crossing set the tone for a great night out in the lakeside tourist and backpacker town of Panajachel.

Back on the bus the next day for the trip to Amatitlan not far from the capital Guatemala City. We have been working with Finca El Bosque for four years. This excellent farm is owned and managed by the Flores brothers. The El Bosque mill is located just off the main thoroughfare in the valley below – then we climbed in 4x4’s to the farm itself at 1400mt overlooking the valley. El Bosque is more or less situated on a mountain of its own – growing Bourbon, Catuiai and Caturra varietals. Finca El Bosque has a dedicated following amongst our specialty roaster customers.

The Flores brothers split the agronomy, marketing, harvesting and various other tasks amongst themselves. El Bosque only started direct sales relatively recently our relationship with them has allowed us to develop some boutique lot ideas as well as seeing on-going quality improvements. Owing to urban development and proximity to Guatemala’s rapidly expanding capital, El Bosque is rather uniquely situated – and we are looking forward to further developments from this top quality estate.

Our guests enjoyed a coffee picking competition and a picnic lunch at the farm .

On Thursday afternoon after the El Bosque visit; we visited Anacafe’s headquarters in Guatemala City. Anacafe excel as a producer organisation working on behalf of Guatemala growers – of whom there are some 65,000 coffee producers.

Anacafe director William Hempstead delivered an overview of Anacafe operations – and our group were treated to a wealth of information and marketing materials. Anacafe’s GPS farm info pages on their website are very useful and rarely will customers find such a comprehensive resource available for their marketing needs. We also cupped coffees from all over Guatemala – with the “new” Acatenango region standing out.

Friday arrived after a hectic week of travel and visits. A beautiful sunny warm day greeted us for the trip to our old friends at San Francisco Tecuamburo – in the Fraijanes region. The access to San Francisco Tecuamburo is particularly challenging but Don Sergio Barrillas and his powerful 4x4 (fully loaded with a keg of beer and our entire group) completed the trip to the farm comfortably. San Francisco Tecuamburo has really become an all time favourite amongst our customers. Sweet, crisp, balanced, with a fine acidity, body and equilibrium. San Francisco Tecuamburo is located on the side of the Tecuamburo volcano at 1500mt. Sergio Barrillas and his family has a wonderful ranch house where we enjoyed ample food and drink.

San Francisco Tecuamburo has a couple of sulphur lagoons near the farm; the soil being particularly rich and the climate very agreeable. Mercanta has been purchasing an increasing number of containers from San Francisco Tecuamburo each season owing to its growing popularity. Clients in more than a dozen countries enjoy this fine example of a Guatemala Estate coffee.

Finally, following a week of exceptional hospitality our group had appreciated charming and generous hosts at farms in five distinct growing regions. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the Field Trip – and we wish to offer every thanks to all the growers who we visited. We look forward to tasting these fine coffees in the coming months.

 Everyone learned a lot, we had a great time and the group enjoyed the sometimes unexpected pleasure of meeting specialty roaster clients from all over the world and spending a week sharing information and experiences from our own markets.

We can perhaps draw some global conclusion from our trip.

-         *     The continued and accelerating separation of the specialty and industrial/commercial coffee business. From tree to cup – every step of this path is different.

-         *       Guatemala offers specialty roaster customers an unparalleled choice of widely varying fine coffee tastes under one roof/sky.

-         *      Anacafe are amongst the top three origin marketing organisations in the world for depth of materials, resources and information.

-         *       For Mercanta, Guatemala will continue to develop as a key source of fine, traceable coffee. We expect Guatemala to reinforce its position as our number two producer origin.

-         *       Lack of coffee pickers (migration to the USA, rising costs, migration to cities, lack of accommodation at some farms, all at once ripening cycle etc) is a hidden threat to production (not only in Guatemala) for many Central American producers. The market is overlooking this issue.

-        *    The Cup of Excellence programme has helped uncover dozens if not hundreds of previously unknown producers  regions and micro climates – the beneficial follow on effects of the Cup of Excellence programme should be highlighted more extensively.

On Friday evening, Christian had arranged a farewell gala dinner at Jakes restaurant – one of Guatemala’s finest. Since our group did not have the opportunity to visit all the farms that we deal with – the gala dinner was an opportunity to invite those whom we could not visit on this occasion.

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the Field Trip – and we wish to offer every thanks to all the growers who we visited we look forward to testing these fine coffees in the coming months.

Thanks to Christian Schaps from Mercanta Central America for organising a very well constructed trip and thanks to our specialty roaster customers who took a week out of their busy schedules to join us on this latest successful Coffee Hunter Field Trip.

Stephen L Hurst

January 2007