"I want everyone to appreciate a cup of coffee," says Guatemalan farmer Felipe Contreras
Ambiente baristas spent an intensive week with producer Felipe Contreras in Guatemala in the spring of 2025, to see the whole process from seed to cup.. In conjunction with the Nordbeans roastery, they then selected five coffees to introduce in limited volume at the beginning of this year. Three of them come from Felipe's farm Finca Gascón: Nitro Washed Geisha, Natural Kombucha Pacamara and Natural Anaerobico Bourbon. You can sample them at select establishments or buy a bag to take home, either for espresso or filter.
How did you get into coffee production?
My father bought the land where my farm is today a few years ago with the idea of planting coffee trees. In 2018, the farm started producing coffee cherries and I was put in the role of sales representative. But I understood that I can't sell coffee at the right price if I don't know much about it. So later that year I took a course called From Seed to Cup, organised by the Guatemala Coffee Exporters Association. I started offering our coffee to local coffee shops and that's how we sold our first crop. At the same time, I met other people who were already in the business and liked our coffee. I had the idea to send samples abroad, so the beans ended up in the UK and we signed our first foreign contract.
Today, Finca Gascón coffee is used by roasters almost all over the world, including Nordbeans in Liberec and the renowned Terres de Café in France. How did this happen?
I met a lot of people, went to trade fairs, handed out samples and found out how people liked the coffee. I think I already know the market and I know what's in demand. And I've been doing it my way for the last three years and it's working. I told myself, I'm going to trust my instincts and do what I feel is right. I've never tried to be a salesman. I say: Here are my coffees. Everything is open and transparent. That's how we work. You can come to the farm anytime and see it for yourself. If you like it, great. If not, that's fine too - maybe our coffees aren't for you, but for someone else. I'm authentic and strive for simplicity and honesty.
It was more of a weekend thing for you back then, right?
Exactly. But the first foreign contract kicked me into gear. I got the urge to experiment, to be interested in fermentation, for example, and to push the whole production thing. I started to spend more time on the farm and the people who work there - it wasn't just my days off anymore. I actually started acting like a full-fledged producer and gradually gained real insight into how it all works. And I also had a better understanding of coffee itself.
Today you only use organic fertilisers and sprays, the farm works as a complete ecosystem and you maintain biodiversity. When did the decision to go organic come about?
In 2022, when I realised that after two years on the market we already had a good name. I said to myself: Okay, I'm starting to understand fermentation processes and processing technology. Where do we move now? I realised that the next shift had to happen directly "in the field". I've always been more interested in, say, other approaches to farming, with innovative approaches and techniques that do without herbicides and other environmentally harmful substances.
And how did that work?
I took a seminar on biodynamics (ed. note: biodynamic farming looks at crop, animal and farm management as part of cosmic processes) and I also met a biochemist who was developing a similar production model, albeit not directly on coffee farms. That's when it clicked for me. It wasn't biodynamics in the esoteric sense. This approach was based primarily on scientific knowledge and practical examples.
How did you move forward?
We hired this biochemist for a year. His job was to fully develop and standardise the whole model - to understand the soil and teach the whole team how to create biofertilisers and other products. That year we set aside one hectare of the farm for testing. We wanted to see how it would work, and started to build an "organic factory". We ran a series of lab tests to see exactly how the soil and plants reacted. With the right setup, everything went very well - production did not drop, as is often said, and the nutritional values remained fairly stable. What's more, it turned out that with more intensive and thoughtful care, the results could be even better.
Is that why you decided to go all out?
Actually, yes. Of course the transition had some impact - the first two years were transformational. We had to get used to a new way of farming, new practices and understand in depth how it all works. It's not something that simply kills mould or insects. It is a system that requires much more standardisation and planning, and also more intensive monitoring.
Did it go more or less smoothly, or did you stumble in some respects?
It was very fast and in retrospect it seems unreal that we did it in just two years. But at the same time, it's still a long-term process. In the transition period we had huge problems with plant diseases - and when I say huge, I'm not exaggerating. We had no harvest at all from some plots.
How so?
In particular, we were plagued by ants - there were huge numbers of them on the trees. I remember once we hosted people from our client's team and gave them a tour of the whole farm. And they said to me, "Felipe, this doesn't look good. And I had to agree. It really didn't look good - lots of ants, leaf rust in places. If you look at conventional plantations, they look perfect: everything is neat, rich green, lush. It made me very nervous at the time. Plus, the team management was failing, it was a somewhat chaotic period. I was immersed in sales and trying to learn the new system, so I was frankly taken aback by the situation.
But we saw the farm in great shape...
In the last year, things have finally started to turn around. Only now have I fully felt the impact of all our work - last year's efforts have paid off and the coffee trees have bloomed absolutely perfectly. It's clear that we've learned from our previous mistakes in the management of the farm, in the right choice of products and in the timing of the interventions.
Now you are a full-time producer, you even have a "laboratory" where you experiment with the coffee and roast it. You're on the farm almost every day, while traveling the world to establish relationships with roasters and other distributors. Do you think this kind of commitment is necessary?
I've come to realise that you can hire anyone - even top experts - but no one is going to do the job with the same commitment as you. No one is going to take care of your farm the way you do. A few will give you advice or recommendations, but few can put the right energy at the right time into exactly what you need.
What fascinates you most about coffee and its production? And what motivates you?
The infinite range of possibilities - from processing to variety choice, processes, volumes. When I was given the opportunity to build an organic background and saw the doors it opened - in terms of contacts and collaboration - it seemed incredible. I was given the opportunity to create and develop a production model that is truly innovative and completely new in the coffee world! But the internal growth is also a big motivation for me, the feeling is literally priceless, it surpasses any financial benefit. Honestly - I haven't experienced much success before. So the chance to do things right, to make sense of it, has been everything to me. I said to myself: This is what I want, this is what I want.
You're 30 years old. Do you feel a generational difference when you're interacting with other producers?
Sure. But I understand that at 55 or 60 you don't necessarily have the energy to completely change anything.You have a family, children, responsibilities - and if something is working, why change it? The way we run the farm is still not very well researched. It takes courage and a willingness to take risks. And at that stage in my life, I could afford to take full responsibility for my decisions, including any mistakes.
My family gave me a free hand, but I said: If it doesn't work out, I'll accept the loss, the failure - and I can get back on my feet. An older producer often can't afford to do that. He might be able to test other approaches on two hectares, but he doesn't dare go for a major change. But at the same time, the direction I have chosen has been confirmed as the right one in recent years. Frosts, climatic fluctuations and other problems are pushing us towards production methods that guarantee greater resilience and the ability to regenerate.
What makes your farm specific?
It's a high-altitude farm, and it's close to an active volcano. As a result, we have a lot of volcanic ash in the soil, which naturally mineralises it. And even though we're at a high altitude, it gets really extremely dry in the dry season. But this "stress", I think, is paradoxically good for the plants. The concentration of sugars naturally increases and the coffee can then be much stronger, provided of course that the coffee plants are given the right nutrients.
How do these factors affect the taste of coffee?
The mineral soil and the fact that we actively involve natural minerals in production make the coffee more expressive in flavour. In conventional farming, people tend to focus on just three macronutrients - nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. These provide the yield and growth, but not the expression, the complexity of flavour.
What do you use to choose coffee varieties?
I don't want to plant only hybrids bred to be resistant to specific diseases. Rather, we are looking for the right varieties for a specific location. Four of the ones we grow today were propagated right here on our farm. The Orange Bourbon, for example, comes from one tree that we selected. Only the Geisha came from elsewhere. The others came from here - and we picked one yellow type that caught our eye. We continue to propagate these varieties here because they are used to the local terroir. You can see that they naturally thrive here - when you plant them, they take root and grow willingly, without any struggle.
How can I imagine the taste of Guatemala in a cup?
Chocolate, orange peel, honey.
And what would Finca Gascón taste like - the coffee you drink every day?
That's Anaerobic Natural - cherry, chocolate, lime.
Where do you see your farm in ten years?
At the top of the coffee scene. I don't know if it's necessarily among the competition coffees or as a world championship winner, but I'd like the end customer to appreciate a cup of our coffee as much as I do. I want them to see all the richness, all the work behind the scenes, the way it's produced and everything I've gone through to give them the best possible version of coffee today.
And in terms of business?
I want to have a healthy farm - stable production, good, consistent quality year after year. To be reliable. To grow different varieties and have a sort of "garden of varieties" with different flavour profiles that make sense and that I enjoy. And as the business grows, I'll have to shift as a producer. Maybe in time I'll be more about helping other producers understand the market - what it wants, how it works... - and taking them on that journey with me. At the same time, I have to stress that our farm can't get any bigger - but even if it could, I probably wouldn't want to. That's why I'm going to concentrate on this.
About Finca Gascón
Finca Gascón is a Guatemalan coffee farm in the historic city of Antigua, spread out on the hillsides at altitudes of up to 2,000 metres. The coffee trees here grow under the shade of native trees such as avocado trees, the coffee cherries ripen slowly and the local soil gives them a distinctive yet balanced flavour.
The owner of the farm is Felipe Contreras, a farmer who treats coffee as a craft. He works directly with specific roasters and baristas, together they find the best way to process and work with micro and nano lots. He emphasises quality, long-term relationships and respect for the place and the people who work on the farm.
Area: 40 ha, but only 15 ha are occupied by coffee trees.
Cultivation: Coffee trees grow in the shade of other trees (shade-grown coffee).
Area: San Juan Gascón, Antigua
Altitude: 1750-2050 m above sea level
Soil: Volcanic, rich in minerals
Varieties: Geisha, Typica, Yellow Typica, Pacamara, Bourbon, Orange Bourbon, Orange Geisha, SL-28, SL-24, Catuai
Processing methods: Washed, honey, natural, anaerobic, carbonic, macarace, oxybean, lactic, nitromaceration, koji, kombucha
