This microlot was produced by Darwin Estuardo Fabian Estrada on his tiny 4.5-hectare farm, El Calagual, near the village of Concepción Zacuapa in Guatemala’s Santa Rosa department.
Darwin is a fifth-generation coffee producer, with his family’s history in coffee dating back to 1899. It was then that his family moved to the area and established a 154-hectare farm called Finca El Chicón. Darwin’s father Bonifacio Fabián inherited the small portion of this farm, which is now El Calagual.
Darwin studied agronomy at university, specialising in coffee production. This helped him realise that the family farm had great conditions to grow exceptional coffee. Finally, his father let him harvest and process some coffee as part of his thesis. The results were excellent, which in turn helped Darwin convince Bonifacio of the potential of the farm.
Darwin’s experimenting with processing and varieties have helped maximise their coffees’ quality, allowing them to earn higher prices for their coffees than before.
In 2019 Darwin built African drying beds to process naturals, and his next step will be to invest in a pulper to enable him to process honey and fully washed coffees. He is also experimenting with a lot of new varieties on the farm, with around 30 varieties currently in his nursery that he will plant in the future.
Darwin says “we do all of this with a lot of love…it’s a work we enjoy doing and it makes us happy to be able to do it well!”
This information and images have kindly been shared with us by our import partners Melbourne Coffee Merchants.