At one plantation, the owner proudly announced there was a school for the workers' children on the premises for them to attend during harvest season, but the children were all out in the fields, picking coffee with their parents to make more money. At this same finca, while the tour group was treated to a gourmet luncheon replete with white tablecloths and gloved waiters, the pickers were made to sit outside a chain link fence until we were done eating, plainly watching us before they could bring their coffee to the mill for processing. I completely lost my appetite. Our last stop was the incredible Coban region, situated in the heart of Guatemala's rainforests. It is cloudy, rainy and cool year-round, with soil formed from limestone and clay.
Coffee is grown on rolling hills, whose valleys are filled with ethereal wisps of clouds and vapor.
I loved this region in particular because of its mysterious atmosphere, wide variety of vegetation, heavy Mayan influence, and the coffee itself. Coban produces the most distinctively unique coffee from all of the regions we visited. It is full-bodied, delicately acidic, possessing a sweetly fragrant aroma and a light, winey aftertaste. Both of the fincas we visited in Coban were in very good shape. Averaging about 5,000 feet in elevation, they were both family-owned.