Wendy & Luis

Impressions: hazelnut spread, caramelized apple, cane sugar
Roast degree: medium (3/5)
 
Country: Guatemala
Region: Casillas, Santa Rosa
Farm: El Durazno
Farmer: Wendy & Luis Roldan
Variety: Red caturra
Process: Washed
Partner importer: Semilla

Probably our most impactful coffee. By buying coffee produced by Wendy&Luis, you help us change the exploitative coffee status quo.

For the third year in a row, we are thrilled to bring this important coffee. But this time around, it's even more special, because we bought all the red caturra that both Luis and his wife Wendy have to offer.
It's the third time Luis sells his coffee internationally, but the first time that Wendy does it, and just like the other harvests, we bought all of their production.

Luis is an active and well respected leader of the Cafe Colis Resistencia, a producing group from the Indigenous Xinka community around Mataquescuintla, Guatemala.
Within the Mataquescuintla area, nearly 90% of the population identifies as a coffee producer and yet, almost none of these producers have access to a market beyond selling in cherry to local intermediaries or to large farms who process their coffee and sell it as blended lots to their international market. This means around 35,000 people who live off of coffee as a primary income have no other options for sale.

Wendy just took over her family's farm and is already producing stunningly delicious coffee.

That's why we love working with Semilla, as their primary goal is to give access to the specialty market to small holder producers who have almost no options to receive a fair price for their coffee.

The group Cafe Colis Resistencia is opposing the exploitation of the Escobal silver mine, owned by Vancouver-based Pan American silver. This Canadian company wants to go ahead and exploit the mine on Indigenous land despite being in contravention of the United Nations Declarations of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

We are proud to join Semilla in their efforts to stand on the side of Indigenous sovereignty and landing our support for this producing group. Not only does Semilla buy the coffees at solid prices, they also lend their voices as Canadians against this illegal extractive project.