Guatemala Nery Pablo

Region: Huehuetenango
Altitude: 1,550 - 1,600 m.a.s.l.
Variety: Caturra, Bourbon
Processing: Washed

UK Arrival: June 2025

Tasting Notes: White chocolate, lush raspberry and fudgy chocolate notes make for an indulgent brew. A classic Guatemala, elevated by a smooth mouthfeel and clean finish.

This lot hits the chocolate bullseye while boasting luscious raspberry notes; white chocolate raspberry brownies come to mind. It’s easy to find a Guatemalan coffee with this classic profile, but harder to find one as clean and distinctive as this. Brew as a pourover to get the full experience.

Nery Pablo is a second generation coffee producer who inherited his 1-hectare farm, which he named Paya’, from his parents in 2010. A few years later he joined El Sendero Cooperative which offers financing, workshops in agronomy and marketing to bring coffee to specialty exporter/importers like Primavera. 

“At first we faced big challenges as coffee producers because we lacked knowledge about agronomy and post-harvest processing. But thanks to Cooperative El Sendero, and thanks to access to microcredit, we have been able to improve the quality of our coffee,” Nery says.

Nery’s farm is called Paya’, a word which means “birth of the river” in the Popti Mayan language. The farm is located high in the mountains, at 1,600 m.a.s.l., where a river begins. Nery’s farm produces about 1,100 kg of coffee annually. The coffee is shaded by chalun, avocado and other fruit trees. 

Nery depulps and dry ferments his coffee at his own wet mill. After a 32-hour fermentation, the coffee is washed and then placed on a patio to dry for six days. Nery’s wife takes the lead in the processing and drying of the coffee.

This coffee was brought to us by Primavera Green Coffee, an importer with strong roots in Guatemala. The founder, Nadine Rasch, comes from four generations of coffee farmers there. We’ve been cupping their coffees for a few years now and have been consistently impressed by the quality coffee they’re importing. We’re excited that this season we’re finally able to work with them. 

Primavera reports that the 2025 harvest was unusual in a few ways. First there was the record high commodity price of coffee and the ripple effects in the specialty market. In some places the high C price meant that producers could sell their coffee to commodity buyers for the same prices as specialty buyers without all the painstaking quality control measures demanded by the specialty market. 

Primavera says, “Despite the challenges, this year’s quality has been excellent. This is in large part due to the hard work of our team in Huehuetenango, whose work with producers ensures they selectively pick and process as carefully as always.” These market challenges were compounded by a late harvest. Primavera reports that chilly nights in November and December resulted in slower maturation for the cherries and a delay in the harvest of about three to four weeks. Given that, it was likely even harder to convince farmers to let their cherries ripen fully before picking. But slower ripening also means sweeter fruit and therefore sweeter coffee.

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.