Finca La Bendicion – El Progreso
José Gómez is the owner and manager of the farm’s 37.8 hectares of land. He grows mainly Bourbon, Caturra, Catuaí on the soils of Finca La Bendición, in addition to some smaller plots dedicated to producing Maracaturra, SL28 and Java. Native trees such as Shalum, Grevillea and Mora are used as shade for the coffee trees to help create a cool climate, ensuring an even ripening occurs.
- Farm Finca La Bendicion - El Progreso
- Varietal Bourbon, Caturra
- Process Fully washed
- Altitude 1,800 to 2,000 metres above sea level
- Town / City El Progreso
- Region Sierra de las Minas
- Owner José Gómez
- Tasting Notes Floral, juicy red grape and honey, tropical, apricot, black tea, and plum with dried fruit.
- Farm Size 37.8 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.