La Esperanza is owned by brothers Erick and German de La Roca Garavito. The farm sits on the slopes of Volcan Acatenango in Acatenango, Guatemala.
Both of the brothers work in the coffee industry; Erick is an agronomist and manages a large 1,500-hectare farm near Guatemala City called Agua Tibia. German is a Q grader and works in Anacafé’s green coffee lab.
Since 2007, Erick and German have dedicated their weekends to renovating the La Esperanza, implementing more formal and sustainable agricultural practices, with the goal of improving the quality and helping the farm realise its potential. Over this period they have replaced all the trees on the farm and planted new Caturra, Typica and Catuai variety trees. Today the oldest trees on the farm were planted in 2008, and the duo aim to renew the trees every 25 years.
Erick and German’s long term goal has always been to process their own coffee. For many years, like their relatives, they sold their coffee in cherry form, which meant they had little control of how the coffee was processed, and all traceability was lost in the supply chain.
In 2019, this dream became a reality. With the encouragement and guidance from Eduardo Ambrocio (pictured alongside Erick on the second origin image), Erick and German began processing their coffee. They started with honey and natural processing methods, as these require minimum capital investment and also critically, require less water (which is limited at their farm). The results were exceptional, so in 2020 they built a small wet mill and also began processing washed coffee.
Some of the best results from La Esperanza to date have been from their honey processed coffees - such as this one. During the harvest, coffee was selectively hand-picked over 3-4 passes during the season, ensuring that only the riped cherries are picked. The coffee is then pulped by hand and laid on raised beds to sun-dry; regularly turning ensuring it dried evenly.
This information has kindly been shared with us by our wonderful import partners, Melbourne Coffee Merchants, and we thank them for helping us to shine a light on the work of Erick and German de La Roca Garavito.