San Rafael

Lote Colectivo lots are among my favorite lots for a couple of reasons. Sure, micro-lots are fun, wild, and super cool to display the possibilities of what coffee can taste like, but when it comes to our sourcing passions, Lote Colectivos are where our heart lies.

This lot comes from 7 families in the Hoja Blanca region alongside some of Don Gerson’s coffees. What I enjoy most about Lote Colectivo lots is that they’re inclusive lots, enabling surrounding communities to benefit, and they grow a coffee that fits the classic Guatemalan profile we all love!

In our minds, it’s a beautiful balance where both community impact and quality coffee meet together. We love getting to work with farms in a way that’s investing in them individually and in their relationships with the surrounding community. Don Gerson stated, “It’s an honor to be able to process their coffees and extend out to them a better market outlet as a result of our relationship with COI.”

Lots of political and C-market changes have been happening in Guatemala as of late. Now that Brazil has recovered from its frost, supply levels are up, which means C-market pricing has begun to tank. Without better market outlets, C-market pricing is often the only option most producers are given. With high fertilizer costs and labor shortages, this places producers in Hoja Blanca in a scary position. Additionally, one of Guatemala’s largest exporters just fell apart, which places the local wet mill in Hoja Blanca in an even more difficult spot.

This Lote Colectivo might therefore be a safe haven and provide producers in Hoja Blanca a way out of being locked into C-market pricing for genuinely higher quality coffees! We love that we get to play a small role in providing more and better opportunities for local smallholder producers. We look forward to revisiting Hoja Blanca later this year to continue learning where we can come up underneath to support them, while continuing to build mutually beneficial relationships with producers and roasters in mind.

TRANSPARENCY
A Note from Nick Yost, our founder: We firmly believe that transparency in the coffee industry is of utmost importance, even though it is inherently complex. Our mission is to provide a candid account of the various factors involved in the production and preparation of this coffee, spanning from the farm to your cup. Furthermore, we aim to actively contribute to fostering open communication among the individuals who play a role in bringing this coffee to life. Nurturing this cycle of communication is crucial for advancing our industry, ensuring fair compensation for producers, and continuing to bring you better and better coffees each year. While this report may not cover every detail comprehensively, it is meant to initiate more profound discussions with you. If you have any inquiries, please don’t hesitate to contact me at [email protected].  – Nick

San Rafael / Guatemala 2023

Green Coffee Cost: $5.15 usd/lb
Green coffee cost is the price that we paid, per pound, for this coffee. This coffee was purchased with the help of our friends Ryan and Abdiel from Collective Origins, who specialize in relationships, logistics and shipping coffees from Guatemala to the USA.

Production Cost: $6.73 usd/lb
These production costs are basically what it costs us to provide this coffee to you. This includes our utilities, labor, packaging, quality control, licenses, taxes, shipping the coffee from warehouse to our roastery and shrinkage (when we roast coffee, it looses about 10-15% of its weight).

Length of Relationship: 1 year
We have been purchasing coffees from San Rafael since 2023 – and we are eagerly awaiting our chance to visit them for the first time in early 2024 when we visit our farmer friends in Guatemala!