Marisela

Blueberry, ripe grape, and sugar cane. Sweet, vibrant, and beautifully complex.

High in the mountains of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, Marisela tends her small coffee farm with extraordinary care. After her husband left to seek work elsewhere, she took responsibility for managing the farm herself, determined not to let years of hard work disappear.

Today, Marisela oversees nearly every step behind her coffee, from harvesting ripe cherries to processing and drying each lot.

What makes Marisela's coffee special?

For Marisela, quality begins at harvest.

She handpicks ripe coffee cherries and carefully sorts the day's harvest, separating green and partially ripe cherries from those that have reached peak ripeness.

The coffee is depulped the same day it is harvested to prevent unwanted fermentation. Marisela then carefully washes the beans, soaks them in clean water for two nights with regular water changes, and slowly dries the coffee.

It's a meticulous process, but one that helps preserve the sweetness, clarity, and complexity found in the final cup.

What does Marisela's coffee taste like?

Marisela's single-origin Guatemalan coffee is sweet, vibrant, and beautifully complex, with notes of blueberry, ripe grape, and sugar cane.

Its fruit-forward character and natural sweetness create an expressive cup that showcases the quality and care behind this small-lot coffee from Huehuetenango.

A Woman-Led Coffee Farm in Guatemala

Marisela is also part of a cooperative of 25 small coffee producers, 17 of whom are women.

Many women in the cooperative have taken on greater responsibility for their farms as men in their communities migrate elsewhere in search of work. They manage the land, oversee harvests, process coffee, and continue developing their skills as specialty coffee producers.

The cooperative was created to help small producers work toward better opportunities and stronger connections with buyers.

For producers like Marisela, those relationships matter.

Rather than relying solely on local intermediaries, the cooperative is working to build relationships with buyers who recognize both the quality of their coffee and the work required to produce it.

At Gento, we believe that work deserves to be recognized. By building relationships with producers like Marisela and paying prices that reflect the quality of their specialty coffee, we can help keep more value closer to the people and communities behind each harvest.

From Huehuetenango to Your Cup

Behind every bag of Marisela's coffee are months of work, from carefully selecting ripe cherries to washing, processing, and drying each harvest.

It is a coffee that reflects both its origin and its producer.

You can read her full story here.