Hot new thing in the land of coffee? It’s coffee
GUATEMALA CITY — In the narrative spun around specialty coffee, there are two kinds of places: those where people cultivate the beans and those where people consume the end result.
On one side, the sturdy farmer from somewhere in Latin America or Africa plucks red coffee cherries against a tapestry of emerald plants. On the other, men and women in cozy cafes sip from fragrant cups of coffee identified by their exotic origins — Guatemala, for example, a small country of cloud forests and glistening mountain lakes where varied microclimates engender countless coffee varieties.
But the picture is shifting. Guatemala is no longer just exporting coffee. It is also home to an expanding community of coffee shops where baristas point out the peach and raisin notes in the daily special and tasting classes (“cupping,” to the initiated) are scheduled each Saturday.
“The community will grow,” predicted Raúl Rodas, the 2012 world barista champion, who has his own coffee shop and distributor, Paradigma, in the city’s trendy Zone 4.
The phenomenon of “third wave” coffee, with its intense focus on every step of the coffee chain — from identifying the farms that produce the best quality to roasting the beans and educating consumers — has begun to spread across the coffee-producing countries of Latin America. But the fervor of Guatemala’s scene may top them all, even though the pool of potential consumers is very much smaller than in Mexico City or Bogotá.
“We would do this even if they didn’t pay us,” said Ricardo Morales, a barista at El Injerto, established by the owners of a centuryold export plantation of the same name.
Yet, it is difficult to make a business of a specialty coffee shop, and it is a labor of love for those who embark on it. In a country where many people do not even make the minimum wage — less than $12 a day — spending as much as $2.50 on a cup of coffee is a reach for all but a tiny sliver of the population.