The Farms

San Isidro Chacaya and Los Lirios are family-owned coffee plantations that had been producing some of the best coffees available for over a century. 

The farms are located on the western highlands of Guatemala, department of Sololá, right in the middle of the famous Traditional Atitlán® region. San Isidro Chacaya stands between Volcan San Pedro and Lake Atitlán (also referred to as the most beautiful lake in the world!). Los Lirios sits on the slopes of the mountain chain that go from the Lake Atitlan basin to the Pacific Ocean coast.  The farms have a combined area of 180 has, of which 46 are planted with coffee and the rest is an outstanding natural reserve. Their altitudes range between 1.555 bordering the lake to 2.100 m.a.s.l. in the mountains. Due to their topography, they have breathtaking views of the lake, the farms, the reserve and the three volcanoes that surround the plantation (Atitlán, San Pedro and Tolimán).

The farms production ranges around 800 – 1200 bags of 69kg. The quality is our most valuable asset, positively influenced by the altitude, volcanic soils, the different microclimates that can be found on the farms, and the good agricultural practices we strictly follow. The proximity to the lake, volcanoes and mountains surrounding the farm are important factors that determine the microclimates. Our coffee is traditionally processed in the farm: handpicked, de-pulped, naturally fermented, washed and shade dried.  Then it is milled on our own dry mill, this way we can guarantee the quality of our coffee.  The whole process takes up to 30 days, the longer part is drying which takes up to 21 days.  We do it this way to maintain the coffee bean integrity, prolonging its shelf life.

At @chacayacoffee we have a ZERO-WASTE policy in all our production cycle.   Pulp and wastewater are composted with worms to make organic fertilizer, reducing by 30% the use of chemicals on the soil.  We don’t use herbicides nor pesticides in our plantation, helping preserve the vigor of coffee trees while taking care of the environment.

We plant different varietals, but we are recognized as half of our farm is planted with Typica, which produces beautiful, long beans, with the famous “S” curved vein. Besides Typica, we also plant Caturra, Bourbon, Ethiopia, Java, Geisha, Pacamara and SL-28.

All the coffee produced in the farm is exported in micro-lots to specialty coffee roasters all over the world.