15 El Tambor - Guatemala 2021

El Tambor is located in the northern region of Palencia, near Guatemala City and is 100 ha. of the best coffee. When I started working on the land, it was an open mining area and a cattle ranch while only the other 20% was arabica coffee planted in the 1970s. I saw an opportunity and exchanged my house for the property.
The farms name means drum, that comes from a beating sound from an underground waterfall that was not heard after the 50’s, probably due to deforestation and mining soil movement later on. Our soil is naturally mixed with a loamy clay, the rainy season starts in May all through October; for a total of 1300 mm of rain with a relative humidity of 15%. Our average altitude is 6000 feet over sea level, this gives a cool weather from December to February that is the time coffee beans mature.
I love coffee, love to drink it and produce it, as 5th generation in the coffee producing business, I see a very bright future with the help of our team to continue the legacy through hardship and obstacles that will come.
Since El Tambor was one third an open mine area, I planted a large variety of coffee trees and shade like avocado trees to help the local ecosystem develop faster. Different kinds of trees to help the nitrogen in the soil, pine trees native from the area, Grevillea for temperature drop protection, all of these together give us good organic material for the soil as well
We keep the wet mill simple, a small one that works with little fuel so our carbon foot print is minimum, our sun drying patios do the rest. As for rust treatment we use a grey-white clay that was a sub product of the mining, clay has high alkaline pH levels. Rust or any fungus needs an acid environment to grow, we have avoided such problems for years spraying the plants year-round a few times.
Since we have a high altitude, we don’t have rivers so we need to store water from the rainy season, we planted guadgua bambu in the surrounding of the deposit to maximize the intake.
Our variaties in the plantation is a combination of yellow and red caturra; red, pink and yellow bourbon; yellow, red and pink catuai; typica and pacamara. It has been a fun experience to work with so many different coffees, always exploring the best combinations for our blend,