one of the things this regions is best known for, is it's coffee. being a lover of the bean, i was very excited to try the nectar straight from it's source! sunday morning we met up with a small group to go on a tour of one of the local coffee plantations in the neighboring town of san miguel escobar.
de le gente roughly translates to "of the people". it is a co-op of coffee farmers that share a large plantation just outside of antigua, on the slopes of volcan agua.
our farmer/tour guide's name was freddy (on the right). joe (on the left) was his translator. they walked us through the fields of coffee bushes. they explained the process of growing coffee from seed to harvest.
workers returning from the fields with their crops. to keep the fields as useful as possible, the workers will plant crops such as corn, beans, citrus and (yay) avocados amongst the coffee bushes. this ensures that all year round there is a viable food and money source.
i hav absolutely no clue what this tree is called. but it provided an absolutely lovely splash of color!
a scenic view over the forest of coffee bushes. blue skies. mild weather. the peak of a volcano in the background. another gorgeous guatemalan day!
most of the coffee berries were still to green to be picked. we were a few weeks shy of harvesting season. here one lone ripe berry shows the ideal color the farmers will be looking for.
a basket of coffee beans after they have had their shells removed, and have been dried by the sun.
this is what the coffee bean looks like after the husk has been removed. it's ready for roasting!
tony roasting beans old school....on a stone plate over a wood stove.
tony grinding the beans on a granite slab. most of these steps are done off-site with more modern machinery. but....they like to teach the tours to do it the traditional way.
the fruits of our (well, tony's) labor! a very rich dark coffee. freshly roasted/ground and brewed. now i'm going to expect tony to go through the same level of effort every morning for my coffee. no more k-cup nonsense. i want the real thing.
i will say the experience has given me a new appreciation for what goes into a cup of coffee. something so simple that people take for granted.
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