We met Maria Escobar during the 2019 Best of Huehuetenango competition in Guatemala. Her coffee stood out for it’s remarkable and distinctively classic Huehue flavor profile of milk chocolate and blackberry. Maria’s coffee took 5th place out of more than 100 producers submissions. Her farm is small, less than a hectare, so winning 5th place was very remarkable & well deserved.

Her coffee was a favorite of ours so we decided to continue a partnership with Maria this year, purchasing all of her coffee with a quality price premium over the Fair Trade value. Traceability is important to us and we think her coffee is too good not to be recognized. Typically she would sell directly to the cooperative, where her coffee would be blended with her neighbors and sold as a generic specialty lot of Fair Trade and Organic coffee. But after an evening of conversation at the reward ceremony last year (translated from English to Spanish to her indigenous language), the beginnings of hopefully a long term, sustainable partnership was formed. Atlas Coffee Importers has helped us facilitate this partnership, and we’re hoping to contribute to Maria’s longterm success in producing outstanding specialty.

We love this coffees sparkling clean acidity, syrup chocolate undertones, & layers of caramel and fruit notes. This coffee is an incredible example of what Guatemala has to offer.