GUATEMALA - Jose Ramirez

Jose Antonio Ramirez is one of Antonio Ramirez’ four sons, the patriarch of the Los Ramirez group, and his home serves as the heart of the group. In the backyard, under reaching pines, sits a communal beneficio that grows larger each year. Gone is the single-channel depulper of years past, replaced by a shiny new Penagos eco-pulper. The fermentation tanks are larger and freshly tiled, and two drying beds have been multiplied to twenty.
This is not only for himself and his brothers who process their coffee here but rather for the whole Grupo Los Ramirez, an annually growing group of producers who are transitioning from selling in cherry to local intermediaries to processing their coffees from fruit to parchment. The vast majority are members of the extended Ramirez family, and as such, we like to affectionately refer to them as Los Ramirez.
In 2018, just two producers were part of this group, which now numbers over 40. The main
problem, to hear them tell it, has been the basic lack of access to buyers and also to the requisite knowledge of specialty coffee quality standards. Without this access to markets and knowledge, these producers had no idea even the quality potential of their coffee, much less the profits to reinvest into the infrastructure necessary to depulp, ferment, and dry their coffee for sale as micro-lots.
The spirit of this small and dedicated group of producers is above all, communitarian and
egalitarian, hence this growing communal beneficio which is aimed at not only help Jose and his brothers but also any of the other 800 growers in the tiny hamlet of Selguapa, perched upon the highest peaks of the Comayagua mountain range.