Guatemala Luvia Samayoa
Guatemala Luvia Samayoa
Region: Palencia
Altitude: 1300masl
Variety: Red Catuaí and Yellow Catuaí
Processing: Washed
Tasting Notes: This is comfort coffee with velvety chocolate up front balanced by sweet orange and malty, cinnamony Biscoff. The full body and brown sugar sweetness leaves a remarkably rich lingering finish.
Luvia Felisa runs Finca El Faldón, a 7-hectare farm nestled in the hills of Palencia municipality 30 kilometres away from Guatemala City. The farm is named in honour of Luvia’s grandfather, who was the first owner. Five years ago coffee was not the main crop; they also grew tomatoes, corn and beans. But Luvia saw a better future in coffee and completely fell in love with it so she decided to focus on growing specialty grade beans. She became motivated to improve the quality of her coffee and reach new markets. Thus, specialty coffee production has changed the way she grows coffee from fertilisation to picking. Over the years, she’s obtained more coffee knowledge and skills.
She tells Caravela, the importer who brought us this coffee, that when she decided to take over the farm and get more involved she received a lot of help from the team at the farm. Her husband, Juan José, was outside the country at that time, helping to support the family from afar. She recalls, “I used to oversee all farm activities, hire the temporary and permanent staff and find buyers.” Today Luvia and her husband are able to make a sustainable profit from the coffee harvest. “Now that Juan José is here, I have more support and help to improve constantly at the farm,” she says.
Smallholder farmers represent 97% of the total number of growers in Guatemala, according to the 2024 USDA report on the country’s coffee sector. The report says that many small-scale farmers have reduced fertilisation due to costs, which is likely to impact present and future harvests. Another major factor impacting costs and quality is the lack of processing infrastructure on most small farms. Smallholders are forced to either sell their harvest to middlemen for substantially lower prices or to rely on larger farms for processing. The larger farms pay more than the middlemen, but they require producers to transport the coffee, further adding costs to smallholders, the report states. Given this context, it’s notable that we’re able to buy fully traceable coffee from a small producer like Luvia.
A note about packaging
Our coffee comes packaged in beautiful and hard wearing tins. It is important to keep those beans away from air and light (see our blog post about coffee storage) and we think tins are the very best way of keeping those guys fresh.
Tins can of course be easily recycled (with other metals) but the very best and most environmentally conscious thing to do with them is to refill them. Find out how to refill or dispose of your Steampunk packaging HERE.