After a short shuttle ride from Guatemala City I arrived in Antigua, the old capital. Antigua is a fairly relaxed place with lots of coffee shops to sit down and people watch. What it also has those is a coffee plantation just North of town.
I’m certainly a lover of coffee, but I have never visited a plantation. Filadelfia plantation is very old skool. The beans are hand picked by hundreds of workers.
The plants are all started in compost before being relocated to the mountain side. These plants grow up to 2500m in elevation.
When they are red, they are ready for picking. Workers are paid around 70c per pound of coffee beans that they pick. Considering the manual labour involved this seems very low. They are then taken down the mountain where the skins are removed manually and they are left to dry in the sun.
I always thought most of this process was mechanical or automated. But, at least in Guatemala, it’s a very manual, labour intensive process.
Of course I bought some beans to bring back. I still need to buy a good coffee grinder.