World class coffee definitely comes from Guatemala. Since I’m a coffee addict, this year’s trip was definitely more about coffee than the last one. And I tell you, why.

We all – including myself – almost never really question, what coffee we are drinking. Yes – maybe we have a favorite brand or coffee shop or even system we like…but have you ever asked yourself, where the coffee you are drinking is coming from? And how it is produced? And if the price you pay for it is justified? Let me tell you about my coffee drinking habits: I use a Nespresso machine at home. When I’m in the US, I have coffee at Starbucks. When I’m in Italy, I have Espresso at a bar. I LOVE coffee and I have probably more cups a day than I should. What bothered me the most, always was the fact, that I didn’t really know what I was drinking. So before going on my vacation to Guatemala, I decided that I wanted to educate myself about coffee – and shoot pictures while doing it!

Diego Joachin who I met on Facebook before the trip, is a coffee expert. And he managed to set me up with Julio who does coffee tours. Julio is the mastermind behind „Craft Coffee Tours“ in Antigua and he also works at one of the best coffee bars in the city – but more about that a little later. I talked to Julio via Facebook and he agreed to take me to visit a coffee farm and meet the farmer and his family. Later that week, we met and drove to the coffee farmer’s house. He then introduced me to Gabriel and his whole family and the tour began. We visited the coffee fields, I learned about the plant, on how it’s grown and taken care of, problems they have in that area and how the harvesting process works. After that, we went back to Gabriel’s house to see how the coffee beans are processed. His wife roasted and ground some coffee beans and in the end we did a tasting of their premium selection of coffee. Let me tell you – THIS is exactly the way coffee should be tasted: processed and prepared by the people who have grown it!

The love and the respect for this art were inspiring and the product spoke for itself. Now that I know, how much labor and efforts go into one cup of coffee, I see things a bit differently. It is very hard work and the risk of farmers being exploited is pretty high. I would definitely be much more willing to pay more for a cup of coffee, if I knew that the money was returned to the farmers and their families. And just to give you an idea: a pound of roasted whole coffee from this farm costs around 7 dollars – that is not really expensive considering the quality you get for it. I would even pay more for such a great coffee.

Julio does an amazing job in bringing this to the attention of more people through the tours. If you ever happened to be in Guatemala, you should take his tour. It is so much fun and such an inspiring experience! You can find Julio here: Craft Coffee Tours.