Hundred House Coffee: Guatemala, Finca Bosques de San Francisco, Natural

Bosques de San Francisco is located in the coffee region of Antigua, spread across a valley surrounded by three volcanoes. The coffee grown in the area is famously enriched by the volcanic soil and tends to hold moisture well.

At the farm, the coffee is shade grown with a commonly used tree in Antigua called the Gravilea. Shade growing the coffee not only helps protect the coffee from frost, but also requires little or no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides. The shade trees also filter carbon dioxide which contributes to global warming, and they aid in soil moisture retention, which minimises erosion.

The farm is currently being operated by the 5th and 6th generations of the Dalton family, with coffee representing 214.64 hectares of the entire farm. Bosques de San Francisco is now only a quarter of the original Dalton family farm, originally called Finca Filadelfia.

The farm only grows Bourbon, Caturra, and Pacamara - with most of the coffee picked separately. As the Bourbon and Caturra grow together on the same lots, they are also picked together. Like most farms in Guatemala, Finca Filadelfia originally harvested cochineal, but in 1864 the farm transitioned to coffee amidst a country wide recession. The farm now has 80 permanent staff and has previously won the Cup of Excellence, thanks to their attention to detail at every stage of the farming process. Bosques de San Francisco produce mostly washed coffees, with the occasional rare microlot of natural, such as this one.