ASOKAPE Cooperative – Washed

About ASOKAPE:

In Yellow Rooster’s words:
This [125 member] group began organizing in 2002 as a way to achieve higher earnings for their coffee (known as “kape” in the Q’eqchi’ language). Coyote buyers were (and still are) common, and the cultivation of coffee wasn’t an economically sustainable practice. They continued up until 2015, when coffee leaf rust decimated the region and the associated growers found it necessary to diversify into other crops, and even began roasting their own product for local sale. In 2018, they re-organized and re-planted their coffee, and through the power of relationship, we were able to visit in early December 2021 as they began to prepare for their first international export to the US post-leaf rust as an organized group.

About the Varietal:

Anacafe 14 is a cross between a Catimor variety (Timor Hybrid x Caturra) with Pacamara, and is said to have originate around 1980 in Chiquimula, Guatemala. It was released as a commercial variety in 2014, and is notable for its resistance to leaf rust, high yield potential and cup quality.