This lovely washed coffee comes to us from the Amatitlán lake region of Guatemala! The name on the label says Lirios de Belén but the coffee itself comes from a farm owned by the same folks called La Revuelta - which got its start (as just “Belén,” then) making cactus dye in the 1800’s! Once things in the clothing industry started moving the way of synthetic dyes, they had to refocus their crop to food and livestock, with one such crop was coffee (surprise!). Majestic views of the volcano in the distance over lake Amatitlán make this one beautiful stretch of land! This coffee is a washed process, meaning that it travels from the farm to a wet mill, (in this case the aforementioned Lirios de Belén mill!) where the flesh of the coffee cherry seeds are removed through a combination of water currents and abrasion over cement troughs, as well as fermentation to loosen up the mucilage underneath. At this point they are dried on raised beds in the sun, leaving a peanut-shell like layer called ‘parchment’ to a low moisture content which helps protect the beans from bacterial growth and keeps them shelf stable!