Maria Ramirez Vargas

Some of our regular customers might find the name Maria Ramirez familiar, as this is our 6th year of buying coffee from the Guatemalan producer. Maria’s farm, T’Zun-Witz, is located in the town of Concepción Huista in the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala. Huehuetenango is an incredibly diverse cultural region where over 75% of inhabitants are members of several Indigenous communities who have lived there for centuries.

Maria herself is a member of the Jakaltek people, whose native language, Poptí, is spoken by only 60,000 people. Maria and her family are first-generation coffee producers.Her husband emigrated to the US so they could afford to buy the farm.  Maria is a member of Cooperative El Sendero which provides support and education for its coffee producing members in the town of Concepcion Huista.The main focus of education is the improvement of agronomic practices and post-harvest processes.

During the harvest, Maria makes sure only the ripest cherries are picked, and the rest are left on the tree to be picked on another day. The cherries are depulped on the same day they are picked, and left to ferment in water for 36 hours. After fermentation, the coffee is washed with clean water and dried on a patio in the sun for six days.