Categories
The Journal
Categories
Posted on April 6 2021
April 6 2021
North America's Michaela Tomchek visits Victor Calderon in Palencia, Guatemala to explore Finca El Tambor.
Posted on March 2 2021
March 2 2021
With the new season of Guatemala arrivals just around the corner, Michaela from Mercanta North America reflects on her recent visit to long time Mercanta partner, Finca Santa Isabel.
Posted on December 21 2016
December 21 2016
The town of Las Victorias is located in Guatemala’s Alta Verapaz region – an area widely renowned for its coffee. Some 80 families are scattered among farms and rainforest in this beautiful, but impoverished, area. The nearest town, San Cristobal Verapaz, is about an hour’s walk. Although some families farm corn, beans and livestock to eek
Posted on July 8 2016
July 8 2016
On May 16-20, Mercanta North America’s John Curry attended the 2016 Guatemala Cup of Excellence (COE) International Jury as an observer. He shares his experiences.
Posted on June 27 2014
June 27 2014
Arriving on the last flight Thursday the week before the international jury, I awoke to find myself sample roasting late harvest offer samples in our lab, before jet lag had time to set in we were off to Antigua visiting both long term partners and new that we work with in the area, Puerta Verde,
Posted on October 31 2013
October 31 2013
We are glad to launch Mercanta of the Americas, formerly known as Mercanta Central America. This much expanded operation will be overseen by Christian Schaps, who will be responsible for looking after a number of origins in the region. The aim of MoA is to make it more accessible to search for fine coffees as
Posted on March 2 2013
March 2 2013
There are many steps that go into making great coffee. We recently discovered many of the little ones that go unnoticed on Finca San Antonio. Back in May, Coffee Hunters trundled off to Guatemala to visit some of the farms from our wonderful producers. Along the way he spent time with Antonio Pullin Pivaral of
Posted on November 13 2012
November 13 2012
On Wednesday 7 November an earthquake measuring 7.2 caused extensive destruction in Guatemala. There are at least 50 people who have lost their lives and thousands of homes have been destroyed or damaged. The area of San Marcos – the location of both Finca Platanillo and Culpan – was worst affected by the quake. The
Posted on June 22 2012
June 22 2012
This May I was lucky enough to be accepted as part of the International Jury for the Guatemala Cup of Excellence 2012. Needless to say I was very excited to spend a week cupping some of the season’s best coffees from this fantastic origin country. We arrived in Guatemala City on the Sunday evening and
Posted on October 28 2011
October 28 2011
We have just been sent some photos of the damage caused in Guatemala by weeks of heavy rain, as a series of tropical storms batter Central America. Meanwhile El Salvador is forecasting losses of between 7 and 20% of its national coffee production in 2011/12. According to the Red Cross, in Guatemala more than 470,000
Posted on July 21 2010
July 21 2010
We recently welcomed two of our long-term origin partners to London. Don Fabio Solís and his wife Doña Sonia, from Finca Las Nubes in Guatemala, joined us for the Caffé Culture show in mid June. This was their first trip to Europe and we seized the opportunity to ask the couple some questions about life
Posted on March 3 2010
March 3 2010
Flori, Christian and Stephen recently took Mercanta to the third International World Coffee Congress, a three day event in Guatemala City where we decided to run an exhibition booth. Christian made the local arrangements and Flo and I arrived the day prior to the show to add the Mercanta ‘feel’, which in this case resulted
Posted on April 27 2008
April 27 2008
I arrived in Guatemala City on Saturday 3rd May with 2 main objectives; one was to visit and give our gratitude to our Guatemalan growers on behalf of our coffee roasting customers and the team at Mercanta the Coffee Hunters; the second was to take part in the International Jury at the Guatemala Cup of
Back to top
