Guatemala El Progreso Finca Las Moritas

In 1988, Jose Higinio Gomez and his wife Aura Libia carried a vision east to a remote corner of El Progreso, near the Honduran border. They started with a single acre. What grew from it is Las Moritas, a farm and a community born in the cloud forests of the Sierra de las Minas.

OriginGuatemala RegionEl Progreso, Sierra de las Minas Elevation1,850-1,900m ProcessWashed VarietyBourbon, Catuai, Caturra The Source

A Farm Inside a Biosphere

The Sierra de las Minas is a UNESCO biosphere reserve, a protected cloud forest crossed by dozens of permanent rivers and home to hundreds of animal species. Las Moritas sits within it, where humid forest on one side meets dry, desert-like terrain on the other. That collision of climates produces the famous chipi-chipi, a fine persistent mist that settles over the trees and slows cherry maturation. Slower ripening means deeper sweetness and cleaner clarity in the cup.

The Gomez family now tends more than 150 acres at elevations near 1,900 meters, on metamorphic rock soils unique to this highland sanctuary. Their pioneering work reshaped the region. A corner once dotted with a few potato plots became a coffee community where hundreds of families built homes, schools, and businesses. The farm and the place it created grew together.

The Craft

Washed, Then City+

After harvest, the cherries travel to Beneficio La Esperanza, a Guatemalan mill with a long record of processing the country's finest coffees. There the fruit is depulped, fermented, and washed clean, then dried slowly on open patios under the sun. This fully washed method strips away pulp early, letting the Bourbon, Catuai, and Caturra varieties speak with transparency rather than fruit-forward ferment.

We roast Las Moritas to City+, a level that holds the bean just past first crack. The goal is balance: enough development to draw out chocolate and caramel sweetness, not so much that the bright highland acidity gets buried. Roasted in small batches, we let the terroir of this cloud forest carry the cup.

Chocolate Caramel Brown Sugar Citrus BodyMedium-Full AcidityBright The Cup

Sweet, Round, and Clear

The first sip leads with chocolate and caramel, a rounded sweetness that fills the mouth with a medium-full weight. Beneath it runs a gentle but sparkling acidity, a citrus lift that keeps the cup lively rather than heavy. As it cools, brown sugar settles into the finish, smooth and clean. This is highland Guatemala doing what it does best: comforting and balanced, with just enough brightness to hold your attention.

Find Your Fix

This balanced cup rewards pour-over with a Chemex or V60, where the citrus brightness sharpens against the chocolate base. Drip works beautifully for an everyday pot, and Aeropress pulls a concentrated, syrupy version of the sweetness. Browse our coffee beans and find your fix.

Roasted in small batches at our Virginia Beach roastery.

Packaged in reusable glass mason jars, returned locally for reuse. Solar-roasted.

Virginia Beach, VA