Guatemala Juan Raul Lemus

Notes: Milk Chocolate, Caramel, Cranberry
Origin: El Durazno, Mataquescuintla, Jalapa, Guatemala
Producer: Juan Raul Lemus
Farm: El Durazno
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1900 MASL
Variety: Pache San Ramon

We are stoked to be able to purchase coffee from another producer who is part of the Cafe Colis Resistencia Co-op.

About the Co-op:
Cafe Colis Resistencia is the name created by Alex Reynoso to identify coffee producing members of the Indigenous Xinka community around Mataquescuintla who are interested in developing an international market for their coffee, and therefore finally receiving fair prices for their work. The name pays homage to their ongoing peaceful resistance to the Escobal silver mine, built without their consent and managed by the Canadian-based extractive firm, Pan-American Silver.
While theoretically the price of cherry is decided in relation to the New York Stock Exchange coffee commodity price, really anything goes for these buyers. As producers have little to no option, they simply sell to whoever they can, and accept whatever price is offered. In 2022, we saw massive increases in price as the C market boomed. Despite that, we still set prices that were above what was locally available and kept those same prices as a base for this year. That means that any grower, regardless of their quality, received 1750 Quetzal / quintal of parchment coffee, and those who invested in their processing set ups received 1850.

A Note from the Importer Semilla about Juan Raul's Family

Juan Raul is the eldest son of the Lemus family, a family with a long and storied coffee-growing history in Mataquescuintla. Due to their history, they have developed much more infrastructure than the average grower we work with, and possess multiple plots of land that they manage. Where most of the growers we work with previously sold their coffee in cherry, and in the last few years began investing in raised beds to dry their coffee to parchment, Baudelio and family have a large wet mill of their own that allows them to process large amounts of coffee and to patio dry it.

While for many years, we purchased coffee from them in the name of Baudelio, 2023 marked the first year that Juan Raul stepped to the forefront to become the face of the family internationally. In many ways, this was a community decision as Baudelio’s age and declining health have made it very difficult for him to actively participate in the Resistance. This means that he’s unable to physically attend the resistance point or to be at the ongoing protests. Of course, he has always been an active supporter through financial means, offering monetary support to facilitate the Resistance in general.

As the group requests that all coffee being sold internationally come only from members who are actively involved in the Resistance, Juan Raul’s name is now thus attached to the coffees more clearly for he has always been and continues to be a vital member of the daily struggle against the Escobal silver mine that has gone on for now over 11 years. For the crop year of 2023, we were happy to be able to purchase around 150 exportable bags from the family, close to their entire production.