Guatemala, Juan Raul Lemus

Farm: El Durazno

Region: El Durazno, Mataquescuintla, Jalapa, Guatemala

Processing: Washed

Varietals: Pache San Ramon

Flavour Notes: Honeycomb, Lemon, Green Apple

About the Lemus Family 

Juan Raul is the eldest son of the Lemus family, a family with a long and storied coffee growing history in Mataquescuintla. Due to their history, they have developed much more infrastructure than the average grower, and possess multiple plots of land that they manage.

Where most of the growers we work with previously sold their coffee in cherry, and in the last few years began investing in raised beds to dry their coffee to parchment, Baudelio and family have a large wet mill of their own that allows them to process large amounts of coffee and to patio dry it.

While for many years, we purchased coffee from them in the name of Baudelio, 2023 marked the first year that Juan Raul stepped to the forefront to become the face of the family internationally. In many ways, this was a community decision as Baudelio’s age and declining health has made it very difficult for him to actively participate in the Resistance. This means that he’s unable to physically attend the resistance point or to be at the ongoing protests. Of course, he has always been an active supporter through financial means, offering monetary support to facilitate the Resistance in general.

As the group requests that all coffee being sold internationally come only from members who are actively involved in the Resistance, Juan Raul’s name is now thus attached to the coffees more clearly for he has always been and continues to be a vital member of the daily struggle against the Escobal silver mine that has gone on for now over 11 years.

For the crop year of 2023, we were happy to be able to purchase around 150 exportable bags from the family, close to their entire production. This lot again was isolated as the best lot of them all, this time coming from their farm in El Durazno, one of the highest municipalities in San Miguel. Here, the family manages a small plot alongside other members of La Resistencia like Irineo Ramirez and Gregorio Muñoz.

The rest of the Lemus’ family coffee was included into regional blends. Despite the difference in quality, these blended lots received the same fixed price as the microlots as a means of providing the most financial support possible to the family.