Guatemala El Platanar

Located on the Green Mountain in La Libertad, close to the Mexican border in Huehuetenango lies the farm El Platanar. Here the soil livbes up to the ambitions set by the mountains’ name, with fertile soil supporting not only the Bourbon and Caturra arabica trees but platanos, a large type of banana too. So big in fact that they named the farm after them.

Owned by Leonel Cifuentes, coffee came to the plot after his father Rigoberto split the land he owned between his three sons. Leonel had always been attracted to coffee, and so the farm began. His other passion was for construction, and so he was able to completely build his farm and the beneficio himself, and planted the coffee trees under the shade of the platanares, cypresses and local fruit trees.

When ripe, coffee is picked and pulped before undergoing a 30 hour fermentation. IT is then taken to concrete patios where it is allowed to dry under the sun, with regular raking for evenness.