This morning we headed to ANACAFE, the Guatemalan National Coffee Association, to meet with Christian Rausch, ANACAFE’s Chairman. ANACAFE’s offices are in Guatemala City, about a 10 minute drive from the Holiday Inn. They are a quasi-governmental organization, officially a nonprofit, that represents Guatemalan coffee producers.

Christian presented for several hours on the catalyst for ANACAFE’s surge in activity over the past decade, the characteristics of Guatemalan coffee, the services that ANACAFE provides, market conditions for specialty coffee, the technology they can provide to farmers to promote their coffee, and the environmental initiatives that ANACAFE has begun.

After Christian’s presentation, we took a short coffee break, and got a chance to sample our first cups of quality Guatemalan coffee. It definitely didn’t disappoint. Next we got a chance to hear from an expert in coffee preparation about different methods of preparing coffee from percolator to French press. Most of us learned that the way we’ve been treating our prep equipment, and storing our coffee is likely affecting the quality of our cups! Finally, we had a chance to taste test different varieties of coffee, Antigua, Huehuetenango and Rainforest Coban, that ANACAFE has worked to brand.

Lunch was a welcome respite from a very caffeinated morning, and allowed us to cleanse our palates and noses for the cupping tutorial that followed. We had the chance to hear from Ernesto, a 20-year cupping veteran, about the proper way to differentiate coffees by smell and taste. Cupping is a very similar process to wine tasting, complete with sniffing the bouquet of both grounds and prepared coffee, tasting and spitting, and comparing the aromas and flavors to non-coffee related scents or foods. Some of the ideas that the group proposed for comparisons were hops, popcorn, dirty diapers, and flowers, although the first three were in reference to lower quality coffees (thank goodness!).

Traveling to Antigua was next on the itinerary, although not before many people stocked up on quality coffee beans at the ANACAFE store. A short 45 minute ride later, we arrived at the Posada La Merced, a charming colonial-style hotel in the northwest corner of the city. After checking in, people scattered all over town, with some people heading out for a run, and others to the Sky Bar to try to catch a glimpse of the sunset and grab an aperitif before dinner. The sunset was a bit cloudy, but the view of the mountains ringing Antigua was well worth the trip.

For dinner, we walked just 5 steps away from our hotel to Fernando’s, home of the best coffee in Antigua. Fernando is a coffee roaster and would-be exporter, and had lots to say in his introduction to us at dinner. It was interesting to hear how different his perspective on the industry is from that of Christian from ANACAFE, and on how many issues they seemed to be somewhat at odds. He seemed to be much more focused on paying a fixed price to producers for coffee of fixed quality, instead of incorporating elements such as Fair Trade into his business. In addition, his response to environmental concerns was that the environment will be fine, but we will not be fine if we continue to do things such as deforest and leave the land vulnerable to landslides.

After dinner, we had a short debrief on the day, where the group discussed the perceptions we had formed of ANACAFE’s role or lack thereof in ensuring producers’ welfare and sustainability. I think we’re all eager to talk to some of those very producers over the next few days to get a fuller picture of what we began to see today.