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June Single Origin Club: Guatemala Guaya'b
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June Single Origin Club: Guatemala Guaya'b

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Single Origin Club: Guatemala Guaya'b

What is a Single Origin coffee? Simply put, these coffees are defined by the place they come from.

Single Origin coffees are from a specific farm or group of farms that make up small cooperatives. You’ll find that most of our Single Origin coffees are light roasted.

This month we're sharing our Guaya'b coffee grown in Guatemala by the Guaya'b Cooperative and light-roasted here at Thanksgiving Coffee in Fort Bragg, CA.


Guaya'b from Guatemala

The farmers of the Guaya’b Cooperative grow coffee under a dense forest canopy that doubles as the winter home for dozens of species of migratory birds as well as local flora and fauna. It wasn’t always this way. 

When coffee was introduced to this remote region 40 years ago, it was promoted as an alternative to subsistence agriculture, and farmers were taught to clear forests to make way for this new cash crop. Fortunately, these farmers are closely connected to the health of their land, and have re-established their once logged forests providing much needed shade and diverse ecosystems in which coffee thrives.

Now, a new generation of farmers works to cultivate coffee and a variety of other cash and subsistence crops to increase incomes, and to protect the health of the land. Thanks to their partnership with our importer, Elan Organic Coffee, Guaya’b has perfected the art of picking, depulping and fermenting their coffee to produce deep, juicy, and full flavored coffee with a truly distinctive character.

Altitude: 1,300-1,600 meters

Processing: Wet/washed

Farmer: Asosicacion Guaya’b Civil

Varietal: Bourbon, Typica, Caturra

In fact, the farmers’ coffee is so unique that they periodically run into trouble with ANACAFE, Guatemala’s national coffee marketing wing, which tries to subdue Guaya’b’s flair and replace it with a more generic cup profile produced by less-inventive processing methods.

Not content to merely develop members’ coffee production, Guaya’b has a pilot organic honey project, which also helps to increase coffee yields thanks to improved pollination.

Not ready to join the Single Origin Club? Make a one-time purchase of our Guatemala Guaya'b Light Roast coffee.