Our roastery was born out of a fundamental need: to control every roasting parameter in order to honor the hard work done on the farm.

In the beginning, we relied on external services. Although their work was of excellent quality, we lacked control: we would hand over our green coffee and pick it up days later, without truly knowing what was happening inside the drum. We knew that to take our coffee to the next level, we needed to master the art of roasting.

We began our training at Anacafé. While standard commercial parameters exist, learning to roast specialty coffee requires a much more complex level of precision. After several specialized courses, we decided to acquire our own machine: a custom-built roaster handcrafted in Guatemala that surprised us with its tailored engineering and outstanding quality.

Science, Technology, and Great Masters

Roasting specialty coffee is a science. At Finca Peña Blanca, we manage different varieties, and each behaves uniquely inside the roaster. Because of this, we evolved and digitized our processes:

• Cropster Connectivity: We equipped our roaster with high-precision thermocouples connected to Cropster, the global coffee industry’s leading software. This allows us to design, analyze, and, most importantly, replicate the best roasting curves for each lot with absolute consistency.

• International Mentorship: We have had the privilege of accumulating hours of training and calibration at our own facilities alongside great roasting masters: Felipe Quintana (from Café Celeste) and Mike Nelson (from Portland, Oregon). They have validated our equipment, our processes, and, of course, the quality of our coffee.

Custom Roasting and Worldwide Shipping

Our roastery is small and exclusively dedicated to our own harvests. This grants us a major advantage: flexibility. If a client desires a specific profile, we can experiment together, design a custom roast, and replicate it with precision for every subsequent order.

We export quickly and securely to demanding destinations such as the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia.

From Seed to Cup

At Finca Peña Blanca and Café de Las Minas, the coffee is pampered by us at every single step of the way. It is a single-origin specialty coffee, roasted using scientific methodology and delivered with total freshness right to your doorstep—whether in Guatemala or anywhere else in the world.

Our Varieties

We preserve the coffee-growing tradition of our region by naturally dividing our fields according to variety:

• Pache (Pache Cubano): The historic variety of the area, introduced generations ago by migrants from Palencia.

• Maragogype: A classic, giant-bean variety, highly prized for its subtle, sweet, and silky cup profile.

• Pacamara and Gesha: High-specialty varieties currently in development fields.

The Value of the Classics: Climate change and pests make Pache and Maragogype difficult to cultivate, yielding less than modern hybrids. However, we take on the challenge of protecting them in specific lots to prevent their disappearance and to maintain a superior cup quality.

The Process: Patience and Precision

1. Cultivation and Selective Harvesting (February – May)

Due to the altitude, the coffee cycle on our farm is long, producing denser and more complex beans. We carry out a late, staggered harvest, visiting the fields multiple times to pick exclusively the cherries at their optimal stage of ripeness.

2. Artisanal Processing

• Selection and Flotation: We sort the cherries by hand and perform a water flotation process to discard low-density beans.

• Fermentation and Washing: The coffee rests overnight in bags for a pre-fermentation, is mechanically depulped, and spends another night in water to homogenize its moisture. A final washing channel selects the densest beans.

3. Slow Mountain Drying

Drying is meticulously carried out inside a solar dryer. First, surface moisture is reduced using direct fans, and then the coffee rests for 3 to 4 weeks. This slow drying process stabilizes the bean, extends its shelf life, and gives it a vibrant color, similar to jade stone.

4. Milling and Exporting

After a resting period in the warehouse and rigorous cupping sessions, the lot is moved to the dry mill in Guatemala City. Here, it is graded under SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) standards using electronic and vibratory sorting technology.

Finally, the coffee is ready to be roasted at our facilities or exported as green coffee (oro) to our international clients.