Origin Trips | Furthering Sustainability in Guatemalan Coffee Communities
By Aliisa Oake
The focus of origin trips is for coffee professionals to be part of an immersive travel experience involving visiting regions where coffee is grown and produced. De La Gente’s origin trips are now called “Cultivating Relationships,” which seek to connect visitors from around the world to coffee supply chain in Guatemala. These group trips to Guatemala offer a change to travel directly to the places where coffee is cultivated, meeting the farmers who grow it, and experiencing firsthand the landscapes, traditions, and communities that shape every bean.
Whether you’re a barista, coffee shop owner, roaster, importer, or coffee lover wanting to learn more about the coffee supply chain, this is a unique opportunity to explore the journey of coffee from its origin. This trip is particularly beneficial in supporting sustainability in coffee and ethical sourcing and farming practices in Guatemala’s specialty coffee industry.
Origin Trip Guests
What are Origin Trips?
Origin Trips are not just business trips for supply chain members to make a connection in figuring out where to source the best coffee. These group travel experiences serve as an immersive journey in learning about the bean to cup process, why coffee beans from different regions have unique flavors, and what aspects stand out when deciding on which region is the best option to source coffee from.
As part of De La Gente’s Origin Trips, visitors will meet producers and visit coffee farms where they will have a direct experience in learning how coffee plants are cultivated. The farms of our partner cooperatives that participants will travel to are located in three of the eight coffee-producing regions of Guatemala: Antigua, Atitlan, and San Marcos.
Ija'tz Cooperative Coffee Farm in the Atitlan region
Value of Origin Trips: Visiting Coffee Farms and Creating More Inclusive Coffee Communities
Coffee origin trips are very valuable in fostering the foundations of long-term relationships between producers and roaster buyers. De La Gente’s goal of organizing origin trips is cultivating relationships, which means smallholder specialty coffee producers and buyers are given the chance to take necessary steps towards building and maintaining connections with each other on a more personal level. Coffee trips serve as a magnifying glass, allowing us to see how relationships between producers, roasters, and everyday coffee drinkers can shift the balance towards commercial justice. This not only adds value to the beans, but also supports essential business functions for all parties involved — forming an inclusive coffee supply chain.
Many roasters tend to buy coffee without knowing the people they are buying from. For De La Gente, origin trips are about the people. Visiting farms and interacting with producers bridges the gap in business relations and establishes a more equitable, inclusive coffee system. Trip participants can directly engage with producers in face-to-face interactions while openly sharing business plans, establishing specific requirements or needs, and exchanging knowledge. Transparency and accountability issues will be diminished since customers will receive clear information about sourcing, production, sustainability practices, or any other aspects involved in the coffee supply chain.
Coffee Growers of San Miguel Escobar Cooperative Members
Creating inclusive coffee communities further assists understanding and meeting the diverse needs of consumers on a global scale. De La Gente’s goal is to create customer loyalty, as well as generating opportunities for collaboration and learning across cultures. Our initiatives focus on ensuring that smallholder farmers receive fair payment, while encouraging direct trade, sustainable practices, and investing in the development of local farming communities in Guatemala. Origin trips are group travel experiences that encourage an increased involvement in coffee growing areas of Guatemala and reinforces relationships among coffee producers, suppliers, and consumers.
In addition to learning and supporting coffee producing communities, attending origin trips are important for promoting local tourism initiatives. When group travel participants visit, both accommodation and food are needed, which also creates alternative business opportunities for locals. When visitors stay with host-families, they’re exposed to Guatemala’s incredible culture in being able to create a more meaningful, personal connection with local people. In addition, visiting and experiencing the beauty of Guatemala’s world-class coffee regions creates a greater value of Guatemalan coffees. This not only improves the visitor’s experience, but also institutes a deeper sense of pride in residents when they see their culture being appreciated by others from around the world.
Importance of Origin Trips to Coffee Roasters
Although coffee is a globally consumed beverage, many consumers don’t know about the necessary skills or hard work involved in producing it. If you’re a coffee buyer or roaster, consider the message that you want to portray to your consumers. You will be able to use the knowledge learned from your origin trip and the special details that makes Guatemalan coffees world-class to help your customers understand the coffee journey — contributing to a more inclusive coffee supply chain. Share details about what makes Guatemala’s coffee unique and the personal stories of those who work so hard to cultivate it. This authentic group travel experience to Guatemala is something that you will be able to carry with you throughout your personal life, and your coffee journey.
There is a high level of networking that can be generated during origin trips — cultivating relationships directly within coffee farms. With this, a mutual trust will also be created not only between you as a buyer and the producer, but also with your coffee community. Your position in the coffee supply chain contributes to creating an inclusive coffee community. Your customers will trust that they are drinking coffee that came from a place where sustainability and ethical practices are emphasized, and hopefully they’ll start to love coffee even more.
Coffee Farm in Atitlan Region
Immerse in Guatemala’s World-Class Coffees: What to Expect on Your Origin Trip with De La Gente
It’s important for us that you can take advantage of your time during your trip and have a redeeming experience in understanding the individual and collective processes that happen within each coffee cooperative you visit. We want to make sure you are more than fulfilled through this incredible journey into Guatemala’s renowned coffee landscapes and experience the richness of Guatemala’s culture in your free time. With this, we have created an organized itinerary of what to expect during your coffee origin trip.
Here are some details on what is involved:
Live in a Homestay with a Small-Scale Producer
This opportunity will allow you to further connect with the farming community. You’ll stay with a coffee-producing family, allowing you to gain insight and become part of their way of life for a few days. Immerse yourself in the local culture and try practicing your Spanish!
Understand Coffee from Bean to Brew
Immersing in the Coffee Community
Starting at the producer’s home, foster a personal connection with the producer as they guide you through their fields. You’ll gain insights on the entire journey of coffee, from bean to brew. Have meaningful conversations with the producers that highlights the importance of coffee growing for their income, environmental sustainability, and community development.
Lesbian Camargo from Shigualos Coffee Cooperative - De-pulping Coffee with an Electric De-pulper
Get Involved in Processing the Beans
Deepen your appreciation for small-scale coffee production while helping with processing coffee, whether it's the artisanal way by learning about coffee fermentation, washing, drying, and sorting the beans at producers' homes, or on a larger scale at a shared wet processing station. You’ll learn the difference between farming cooperative models with small-scale (artisanal) and large-scale processing and deepen your appreciation for specialty coffee production.
Coffee cupping at La Suiza Cooperative in San Marcos Region
Cupping Session with De La Gente
Have the chance to taste coffees from different Guatemala’s world-class coffee growing regions and common processing methods (washed, honey, and natural) with the coffee producers. You can also provide valuable feedback to producers, which will help them improve the quality of their coffee. After the cupping, enjoy some free time in the colonial city and UNESCO heritage site of Antigua Guatemala.
Visits to Coffee Farms
You will experience visiting coffee-growing regions and see what makes one region different from the other in terms of micro-climates, elevations, cup profiles, and more. Let the cooperative members guide you as you hike through the coffee plantations owned by small producers while having meaningful conversations about the importance of coffee growing for their income, environment, sustainability, and community development.
Planning Your Origin Coffee Trip
Taste coffee, visit farms, and have honest conversations about the sustainability in coffee. Visit Guatemala with De La Gente to learn about Guatemalan coffees and establish long-term relationships with incredible coffee cooperatives.
De La Gente has been organizing coffee origin trips since 2016, and welcomed participants on group travel experiences in various areas of the United States and Canada. We currently work with 26 green coffee buyers and working continuously together, we have built international relationships that extend from attending the Specialty Coffee Expo in the U.S. and donating data to the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide.
If you feel as though your Spanish level isn’t great, don’t worry! During the coffee trip, a bilingual member of our staff at De La Gente will be with you in case you need help with translation. We will handle the logistics, scheduling, accommodation, and additional deals so that you can focus on your experience.
A quote from one of our specialty coffee roaster partners about creating an inclusive coffee community after their Origin Trip with DLG in 2023:
Trystan Lefever on Coffee Farm During his Origin Trip Visit
“It left me wanting to experience more time on the farm, and to feel more connected to the people responsible for the quality and flavor of the product. Roasters transform something, like a chef or a brewer would. But, farmers are responsible for the actual ingredient. The best roaster in the world can’t make magic out of unremarkable beans.
… in coffee you have to create a global community. Kenya, Ethiopia, Guatemala, Colombia, Vietnam - getting to be in contact with people all over the world, that makes the world smaller to us, makes us feel connected to something that expands what our world is, it makes us challenge ourselves and makes us more open and creative.
It just makes us better humans. On top of all that, the global coffee community are some of the friendliest people we have ever encountered.”
- Trystan Lefever, Specialty Coffee Roaster
About the Author
My name is Aliisa Oake, I’m a Marketing and Communications Intern at De La Gente with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and a minor International Business. I’m a coffee lover from New Jersey with a passion for coffee, supporting the industry, along with supporting local communities and sustainable initiatives. I’m excited to work with De La Gente and learn more about Guatemala’s coffee!
