Huehuetenango, and ruins rebuilt by the United Fruit Company

Since coming back to Guatemala in January, we haven't done a lot of traveling. This is in large part because taking the chicken bus in Guatemala can be a stressful experience (I think it's safe to say that Stacy finds it more stressful than I do), and since we're stretching a budget, paying for more expensive tourist transportation can add up pretty quickly. Also, Stacy and I aren't really on the same schedule. Sunday is really the only day off we have together, and one day isn't really enough to travel, at least not in a pleasant fashion.

But, I recently got the itch to see a bit more before we leave, and last week I decided that I had to see Huehuetenango, with or without Stacy. There are still a lot of things missing for the next time I come to Guatemala (Rio Dulce, el Quiche, Monterricco...), but Huehue seemed like a relatively easy trip. So last Friday morning I got up at 5:45, caught the 6:30 chicken bus to Cuatro Caminos, and spent the next 5 hours with my knees slammed against the back of a schoolbus seat.

Downtown Huehue.

I also had no real plan, besides the desire to see how coffee is different in Huehuetenango (my lack of planning may be a major reason for why Stacy doesn't like traveling in this country). Huehuetenango is well known in specialty coffee as one of the world's premier coffee growing regions, and is a much better-known region than Atitlan. I wanted to see a finca, but since I had no luck actually getting in touch with anyone before leaving San Pedro, I ended up just arriving in Huehue and walking into the regional office of the national coffee federation -Anacafe.

This didn't work out exactly like I wanted to, but still was a pretty cool experience. Huehuetenango isn't as much of a tourist mecca as Atitlan, so coffee growers aren't as accustomed to visitors. Also, it so happens that most of the main fincas are about 3 hours outside of the city, and since I arrived Friday, and left Saturday (kinda a blitzkrieg trip), that wasn't really an option.

Nonetheless, the Huehue staff at Anacafe were super helpful, and put me in touch with Jorge Villatoro Gomez, a partial owner of two premier fincas (Miravalle and Montecristo) and the owner of a and roasting company called Kaffa. Jorge took me out to his warehouse, we talked a bit about what separates the best coffee from the just pretty good coffee, and then we cupped two samples of new coffees at the Kaffa warehouse. I am an idiot, and only took two pictures of the whole experience, none with Jorge. Here's the cupping setup.

Moo.

Also, even though I didn't find the place until just before I left, I also stumbled into a great cafe called Cafe Museo. That's the Coffee Museum, which might be in my top 5 business names of all time.

Francisco and Margarita at the Museo.

Cafe Museo is not just a pretentious reference to decent coffee. The cafe also roasts its coffee in-house, and dedicates its wall space to info about the bean.

3 pound batches.

and posters

Besides coffee, I also saw some sites. One, the Mirador de los Cuchumatanes, was amazing. But that will have to wait for another entry, because this one is already getting too long.

The other site was, well, strange...Zacaleu is an old Mam Mayan fortress that lies outside of Huehue that fell to the Spanish conquistadores in 1524, I think. In 1949, the United Fruit Company decided to restore the ruins. I can only assume that this was a gesture meant to apologize for half a century of exploiting Guatemalan labor and destroying Mayan culture.

Problem is, United Fruit took upon their symbolic restoration with their typical respect for local customs and tradition. They rebuilt the pyramids with poured concrete.

United Fruit executive #1: "Maybe if we give something back to the Guatemalan people, the government will forget all of the terrible things we've done and won't expropriate our lands in the upcoming agrarian reform. I propose that we restore the Zacaleu ruins."

United Fruit exec. #2: "Excellent idea. Should I hire a team of archeologists to preserve the historical accuracy."

Exec. #1: "Good thought, but I think not. With modern construction techniques we can respect Mayan culture and bring Guatemala into the 21st century, all at the same time! Poured concrete, hooray!"

United Fruit also didn't really take the time to create accompanying info for the ruin site. So besides knowing that this pyramid is made of concrete, I have no idea what purpose it served.

Historically accurate steps.

United Fruit had nothing to do with these trees or the sky. And they were amazing.

Mayan ballcourt. Honestly, it was pretty cool to see this reconstructed.

Mayan ballgame, as depicted in the Zacaleu museum. Note the complete lack of captions/descriptive writing.

View from the top of the concrete pyramid. Don't quote me on this, but I can only assume that this bowl-shaped thing had something to do with human sacrifice.


Okay, also admittedly pretty cool.

One thing that United Fruit did do successfully was provide a great place for young Guatemalan couples to display their affection publicly, and for middle aged Guatemalan men to nap. I assume this has something to do with the cheap cost of entry for Guatemalan citizens (literally 1/10 of what I paid), but the ruins were literally teaming with teenagers making out and older men laying down. Not exactly what I was expecting, nor what I wanted to see, but pretty hilarious.

time for your closeup.

I'm going to try to write another post on the Cuchumatanes before we leave Guatemala, but for now, just wanted to close with a few pics from a student demonstration in central Huehuetenango.

Just to make things more badass, the lead singer from the Insane Clown Posse decided to show up and smoke a cigarrette. Totally rad.

Cupping (more underqualified instruction at FEDEPMA)

A while ago, we taught a coffee preparation (barista, sort of) course at FEDEPMA. The goal was always to follow up the black coffee and espresso training with a cupping, which is basically a wine tasting, but for coffee. Last Thursday, we finally had the chance to lead FEDEPMA's first cupping.

Even though I'm writing this entry, Stacy deserves most of the credit for the cupping, and most photos that don't include her are hers too, save for the notably bad shots. Trust me, you'll see what I mean when you get to the second pic. Also, our friend Judith deserves a big thanks for sending cupping docs and suggestions from DC...

The cupping table at FEDEPMA.

For non-geeks, cupping is a great way to learn how to describe the flavors and other characteristics of coffee, and it's particularly helpful for someone preparing coffee in a coffeeshop or selling the beans to tourists. If you can say something more about a coffee besides that it tastes good, you can have greater confidence talking to customers. So one of the thoughts behind the cupping was that it will help FEDEPMA employees speak to tourists and future customers at their cafe (still not built).

More importantly, though, cupping can serve as a means of quality control. If a farmer or head of a processing facility cups frequently, he can notice changes in the quality of his beans, and if he or she finds a defect, he can search for the cause, and try to correct it. Hopefully, Pedro and the other coffee employees at FEDEPMA will keep cupping, and it will help them grow and process better, more consistent coffee.

Anyways, this is how we did it, photo essay style:

Figuring out the process

There's more than one way to cup a coffee. Professional cuppers score coffee on a scale of 1-100, and use a very detailed form to evaluate the coffee. The FEDEPMA employees are not professional cuppers, and neither are we. This weekend marks the first time that I needed more than one hand to count the number of times I've cupped coffee.

Stacy set about making our own, simplified cupping form, that would be a bit more useful for FEDEPMA. I helped a bit with the Spanish. As with the espresso and black coffee course, figuring out the best way to translate colloquial coffee talk was at times a bit challenging.

The FEDEPMA cupping form. Why didn't I just take a screenshot? Because that would have been the smart thing to do.

We were also a bit limited by our equipment, and went about a not-at-all rigorous trial and error effort to determine appropriate procedures and the correct ratio of coffee to water, considering FEDEPMA's limited supply of cups (we opted for cappuccino mugs).

The cabaña kitchen table is also the experimentation station.

Once we figured out the procedure, and wrote some great accompanying docs for the presentation, we led the cupping at FEDEPMA. What follows are a simplified version of the steps, leaving out the table setup part. Also, you're supposed to write something down every time you smell or taste, throughout the ordeal.

Los Pasos de la catacion

1. Measure out the coffee for each sample. Somewhere in the background, start heating water. The amount of coffee should be an exact weight. Since the scales at FEDEPMA are terrible, we used two very level tablespoons of whole beans, which I guess is around 12 grams. Important thing is that it's the same every time.

Two samples per person, check.

2. Grind those beans. Then smell them.

Ready for sniffing.

3. The water should be boiling by now. Take it off the stove, let it cool for 30 seconds, then slowly pour it into the cups, in the same order you ground the coffee. Then smell the coffee again.

Echando agua.

Wearing Ted King t-shirts makes you feel like a faster cyclist, fact. Even if that feeling is depressingly far from the truth...

Get in there.

Falling asleep in this position is not recommended.

4. A crust of wet coffee grounds will form on the top of the cup. After 3-4 min, break it with your spoon, pushing the grounds towards the bottom of the cup. Keep your nose close, smell the break.

Doña Loida has respecfully asked that you refer to her as Loida "THE CRUSTBREAKER" Margarita from this point forth.

5. Clean the excess grounds from the top of the cup. Two spoons work well for this.

Clean, I guess.

6. Taste the coffee. Don't take a sip from the cup - there are a lot of grounds at the bottom. Grab a spoonful, and slurp. Do this several times. Ponder the coffee's taste, aftertaste, brightness, and body.

La encargada del taller de catacion.

Juan tastes melon. Seriously, Juan couldn't stop talking about how the coffee tasted like melons.

Tasting, taking notes, keeping track of international coffee prices via text message. Pedro demonstrates proper multitasking technique.

The cup is for spitting.

7. Discuss. Compare your notes. You weren't supposed to be talking during the cupping, so now's your chance to share your observations. This is a great time to practice sounding like a pretentious coffee snob.

Comparing apuntes, and staring off into the distance. Lunch looms on the horizon.

The crustbreaker ponders. I think Pedro's making fun of her or me, but since he's speaking Tzutujil, I really have no clue.

Otto may be Guatemalan, but he gesticulates like an Italian.

somebody made a funny.

lots of adjectives.

Anyways, that's cupping at FEDEPMA. This week we're teaching the coffee prep course again. Today, while trying to figure out a way to heat up the water (kitchen space was occupied), we had two small gas leaks before finally settling on this:

Seriously, if that doesn't qualify as the most bushleague setup you've ever seen, please do share.