El Platanillo
Finca El Platanillo is 347 hectares of coffee trees and native forests. Stuardo has strived to find the perfect balance between preserving the natural ecosystems and producing excellent quality coffee. He carefully monitors the flora and fauna of the farm, including the soil health, to ensure this balance is maintained. The farm has been Rainforest Alliance certified since 2005, truly pioneering the certification in Guatemala.
- Farm El Platanillo
- Varietal Gesha
- Process Natural
- Altitude 1,450 metres above sea level
- Town / City San Rafael Pie de la Cuesta
- Region San Marcos
- Owner Stuardo Coto and Family
- Tasting Notes Tropical fruit, jackfruit, mango and jambu.
- Farm Size 347 hectares
Coffee has helped fuel Guatemala’s economy for over a hundred years. Today, an estimated 125,000 coffee producers drive Guatemala’s coffee industry and coffee remains one of Guatemala’s principal export products, accounting for 40% of all agricultural export revenue.
It is most likely that Jesuit missionaries introduced coffee to Guatemala, and there are accounts of coffee being grown in the country as early as mid-18th century. Nonetheless, as in neighbouring El Salvador, coffee only became an important export crop for the country at the advent of synthetic dyes and industrialisation of textiles – in the mid-19th century. Throughout the latter half of the 1800s, various government programs sought to promote coffee as a means to stimulate the economy, including a massive land privatisation program initiated by President Justo Rufino Barrias in 1871, which resulted in the creation of large coffee estates, many of which still produce some of Guatemala’s best coffees today.