El Tesoro
Full bodied, dark chocolate, roast hazelnuts, soft red apple acidity with a creamy milk chocolate finish.
El Tesoro lies amid the steep green hills of the ‘Ixil Triangle’ high in Guatemala’s Western highlands, an isolated area famed for the strength of its indigenous culture and the beauty of its landscape. El Tesoro means “Treasure”. The farm lies adjacent to La Perla at 855 – 1200m above sea level.
El Tesoro has been producing coffee since 1940 and is located in a region known as El Quiché. It was this region that experienced much of the very intense conflict of the civil war that ran from around 1960-1996.
Amazingly, the incredible (and courageous) commitment of its workers permitted El Tesoro and La Perla to continue to produce during the civil war, despite the fact that the farm was located in the heartland of the conflict between the Army and guerrilla groups, which used the surrounding mountains as a base. Over the period of armed conflict thousands of civilians in the region were killed, tortured or disappeared as the Guatemalan Army pursued a ‘scorched-earth’ policy to destroy villages. (A UN-sponsored report published in 1999 estimated that the state was responsible for 93% of the human rights violations committed during the war, the guerrillas for 3%. An estimated 83% of the victims were Mayan.)
At the end of the armed conflict, the owners of La Perla, the Arenas, worked hard to reintegrate the refugees in the area by providing work, reconstructing entire villages, and providing health campaigns, such as vaccinations, that facilitated the repatriation of many whose lives were adversely affected by the conflict.
Today the farm’s land is scattered with small settlements, which are home to between 2,500 and 3,000 local Mayan people. Most work on the farm throughout the year, as well as tending to their own plots of land, where they grow staple foodstuffs for consumption at home. Some 500 workers have formed a solidarity association whose activities have helped to raise standards of living within the farm community.
Coffee at El Tesoro grows between 850-1190 metres above sea level and is planted in a loose soil with a high content of clay and sand over a limestone base. The Arenas family pays scrupulous attention to detail at every stage of the coffee process. The beans are harvested by hand only when perfectly ripe, then wet milled and dried either in the sun or in mechanical dryers, depending on the weather.
Around 15% (493 hectares) of the Arena’s 3,285 rugged, rolling hectares are planted with coffee – of the Caturra and Bourbon variety. A further 990 hectares are set aside as native forest reserves, which are a haven for animals, birds and native plant species. The farm’s rain-drenched hills are also the source of several natural springs, and its Ixtupil and Sacsiwan rivers provide more than enough water to irrigate the both El Tesoro and La Perla.
The climate in the area is steamy, hot and humid, with 197 to 217 inches of rain each year. These conditions also support a wide selection of other crops, including cardamom, macadamia nuts and grains.
