SAN JOSÉ OCAÑA - GUATEMALA

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The Sanchez family has owned the Finca San José Ocaña for over 110 years. The farm is located in San Juan Sacatepequez. San Jose Ocaña has always been a sustainable agricultural operation, which started mainly as a forestry farm management. It became a fine coffee producing farm, serving only the prime speciality coffee market. This is primarily a result of its high altitude, good clayish soils, and varietals.

The farm has its own wet mill on the premises, which allows them to control quality. The beans at the farm are grown at 2,000 meters above sea level. This increases the density of the coffee cherry and provides for lower yields and higher quality. The farmer believes that every coffee bean that comes out of the farm must have the best quality possible, and it has to be produced sustainably since it is the mission of San José Ocaña Estate. Every board foot of lumber is also planted through the same scope and under all certified and government-approved practices by the National Institute of Forestry (INAB). Today, some forestry still goes on. All areas are not exclusively coffee; some are for forestry purposes, both planted and native forests. As many of you know, I was born and raised in Guatemala. When I was five, my family signed me to a private school (Colegio Metropolitano). In Guatemala, private institutions run from 4 to 18 years old; you do all your education in the same institution. I spent thirteen years of my life with the same cohort, and it was small. We were 50 children altogether. Funny enough, several classmates were coffee farm owners; I had no idea I was growing up with my future suppliers. Cristián Sanchez was one of my first friends; we grew up in the city (45 minutes away from our school), so we were the last kids dropped by the bus. We bonded, played on the soccer team, had lunch at each other house hundreds of times, and were good friends. Cristián is the second son of Guillermo Sanchez, the fifth generation of coffee growers and the owner of San José Ocaña. His family owns several businesses in the area; whenever a big family owns several companies (including a coffee farm), they assign a family member to run the farm. In his family, Guillermo runs the family farm. Guillermo is also a board member of ANACAFE, the Guatemalan coffee association. Their coffee is highly traded in Asia, especially in Japan.