Finca Los Caballitos
Hidden amid the steep green hills of the ‘Ixil Triangle’ high in Guatemala’s western highlands, sits an isolated area, famed for the strength of its indigenous culture and the beauty of its landscape. Named ‘Los Caballitos’, meaning ‘the little horses’ in Spanish, the farm was an unmissable purchase for brothers Oscar & Christian Schaps, due to Oscars love for the animals.
- Farm Finca Los Caballitos
- Varietal Gesha
- Process Fully washed
- Altitude 1,100 – 1,800 meters above sea level
- Town / City Chajul
- Region Quiche
- Owner Oscar and Christian Schaps
- Tasting Notes Jasmine, mango, peach
- Farm Size 225 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.