Guatemala - La Pia

A very balanced, sweet and chocolaty coffee with notes of dried cherry, nougat, caramel and marzipan.   La Pia is an incredible example of the classic Guatemalan flavor profile and, like most great Guatemalan coffees, is a real crowd pleaser.

Victor Calderon produces coffee on Finca La Pia just outside of the town of Palencia in the Fraijanes region of Guatemala about an hour outside of Guatemala City.  Don Victor practices bio-dynamic farming on his farm, working with the environment on and surrounding his farm to maintain a functioning ecosystem, of which coffee is just a part.  As a result Finca la Pia more closely resembles a forest than a coffee farm.  In many areas of the farm, lots of coffee are planted as an understory shrub under old-growth and secondary-growth forests.

 In his bio-dynamic farming approach and quest to maintain a healthy ecosystem on his farm Victor works with the environment to ensure the health of his farm and the sustainability of producing coffee on his land.

 The first time we walked the farm with Don Victor he told us about an unusual method he developed to control coffee rust (a coffee plant disease that kills the plant’s leaves and ultimately, if not treated with chemicals, the plant itself).  The story goes; He was driving the dirt roads through his farm and noticed that all the shrubs along the road did not have any rust (coffee rust is present in some percentage on every farm in Latin America).  He started thinking about why this could be and came up with the theory that the dust and mud from the roads that was caked on the plants prevented the coffee rust spores from attaching on the plants. 

 He thought if he could treat his plants with a solution of clay and water he could drastically reduce the occurrence of coffee rust on his farm and do so without the use of chemicals.  So, he filled up pump sprayers, the kind used to spray fertilizer or other agrochemicals, and sprayed the coffee plants on his farm with this clay and water solution.  And it worked.  The plants that were treated with the solution had a drastic reduction in coffee rust. 

 Don Victor has also hypothesized that the clay solution on the leaves mimics shade coverage as it allows a bit less sunlight to reach the level and developing coffee cherries.  He claims that this allows the plants, which are already planted under shade, to develop even slower which increases the concentrations of sugars, acids and proteins in the coffee, resulting in a more complex, tastier coffee.

 We roast and ship Monday - Thursday.
Orders received before 10am typically ship same day.