Guatemala, a small country in Central America, is considered one of the world’s top 10 largest coffee producers and one of the main coffee suppliers to Europe and Japan. The wonderful diversity of climates from forests, mountains, and lakes produces the unique characteristics of fragrance, aroma, acidity, body, flavour, and aftertaste of Guatemalan beans.

“Coffee from Guatemala can be the perfect balance of full-bodied, strong, and sweet with a gentle acidity and complex flavour notes,” according to Homegrounds.co, a Spanish coffee-passionate online forum. “Coffee from Guatemala is known to be sweet with chocolate flavour notes.”

That delicious cup of black liquid that so many people can’t get by without is Guatemala’s second most important agricultural export product, generating more than half a million jobs in the country.  The Guatemalan National Coffee Association -ANACAFE- reports that 97% are small coffee growers.

Jose Miguel Echeverria is a 35-year-old entrepreneur and founder of Guatemala’s first coffee shop with a cupping lab and a coffee roaster called Teco Coffee House. He believes every bean and every cup tells the story of all those small coffee growers behind it. “Guatemala is a beautiful country and has so much to offer. We need to tell the world about the good things from our country and its people,” says Echeverria. “We are proud of our roots; we know that Guatemala has one of the best coffees in the world.” 

His love for coffee started by chance when at 16 years of age, Echeverria got a student job at a coffee shop —he never imagined that he would find his life passion in those coffee cups he served every day.  

For a couple of years, he worked at different coffee shops, where he became a great Barista but wanted to get more involved in the coffee process. In 2010 he started working at El Injerto Farm. This farm has been producing coffee since 1900, specializing in high-quality coffee, and won the Best Coffee of Guatemala in 2021. “El Injerto was my university. Everything that I learned and everything that I am today is because they gave me an opportunity,” said Echeverria during an interview. “They showed me what a coffee grinder was, how coffee was roasted, and all the procedures to create great coffee. They told me that my only job with them was to learn, and that was what I was thirsty for, learning.”

At El Injerto Farm, Echeverria started partaking in local baristas competitions and eventually participated for the first time in the Guatemalan National Baristas competition. Having won this competition in 2014 allowed him to represent Guatemala in the World Barista Championships in Italy. “This was an amazing experience for me, one of the best moments in my life,” remembers Echeverria. “I didn’t even speak English back then, which was a big barrier for me.”

Coffee has become his passion and is opening doors he never imagined. This award makes him want to keep learning more. He continued his training as a barista, learning about the coffee roasting processes, cupping in the laboratory, and the correct preparation of a black coffee cup.

In Italy, he met numerous people from the coffee industry from around the world; among them was Sebastian Simsch, co-founder of Seattle Coffee Works. In 2015, Simsch offered him a job in Seattle, which represented a big challenge, but was his opportunity to learn English and be exposed to worldwide coffee beans. Supported by his father, Echeverria embarks on a new journey that exposes him to a new culture. “That experience changed my life; it was the hardest thing I have done. The first days were tough, I was in a different country with a different language and a different culture. Some days I just wanted to go back,” Echeverria told us that he sometimes felt so frustrated by not speaking English that he cried. “But I decided to keep fighting, to learn the language and conquer Seattle my own way.” And he did. He worked every day, all day long, learned from Simsch, and experimented with all the coffee he had access to.

On his return to Guatemala, he partnered with his father and founded Teco Coffee House on his birthday, March 7.  “We are the first Coffee Shop with a laboratory and roastery in Guatemala. We want to create a coffee community where the producer, the grinder, the toaster, and the consumer are all in the same place. A place where everyone can learn and have access to coffee,” explains Echeverria proudly.

He dreams of seeing his brand “Guate es” in Guatemala’s finest restaurants and hotels, where tourists can access the best coffee in the world, as Echeverria describes Guatemalan coffee.

Story by Monica Gonzalez. Photo by Jose Miguel Echeverria.