You'll love every sip from ELLA - Women Producers of Guatemala. Jovita Castillo, Rita Cohen and Sofia Plocharski own a combined 125 hectares in the central highlands. The highest quality Arabica beans thrive in rich volcanic soil at 1400-1700m above sea level. Shade trees offer natural protection, preserving biodiversity, and reducing the need for chemicals. Harvesting is exacting and done by hand using wet milling methods.
Outer layers of the fruit are removed, placed in water tanks and agitated to remove remaining bits of fruit. Rinsed beans are left to soak. Defective beans float and are removed. Only remaining quality beans are drained, sundried, and hulled to delete any dried layers, then sorted and packaged.
In rural areas, coffee is often brewed in traditional “Chapin” pots and served black with sugar or added spices like cinnamon and vanilla to complement the sweet, fruitlike, nutty Caturra, Catuai and Bourbon bean flavors.
