Hunbatz

Our House Coffee: From the Guatemalan Highlands to Banchory

Every espresso, flat white and filter we pour at Birdhouse starts with our house blend. Here’s where it comes from, who grows it, and what your cup supports along the way.

Two coffees, one blend

Our house coffee blends two Guatemalan coffees, Hunbatz and Los Antiguos. Both are grown by smallholder farmers in the highlands of Huehuetenango, one of the most remote and highly regarded coffee regions in the country.

Hunbatz comes from a community of small producers farming the slopes of Cuilco, in Guatemala’s north-western highlands. The farms sit at 1,800–1,900 metres, where the cherries ripen slowly and build sweetness and clarity. The coffee is picked by hand, then washed and dried in the sun on patios and raised beds, the way it has been done there for generations. In the cup it gives us milk chocolate, hazelnut and a gentle citrus note. It’s the smooth, comforting backbone of the blend.

The name comes from Mayan mythology. In the Popol Vuh creation story, the brothers Hunbatz and Hunchouen were artists and musicians who were turned into monkeys and became patrons of art and music. We like that a coffee named after craftsmanship is grown by people who have perfected theirs over centuries.

Los Antiguos is also grown by smallholder farmers in the Huehuetenango highlands. Dry, warm winds and high altitude there give ideal conditions for growing and drying speciality coffee. It’s a carefully washed coffee that brings toffee sweetness, bright citrus and a soft almond finish to the blend. [Add altitude, varieties and producer details from your Caribbean Goods spec sheet.]

Together they make a balanced, sweet coffee that works just as well as a straight espresso as it does in milk. That’s exactly what a house coffee has to do.

The people in between: Caribbean Goods, Glasgow

We buy both coffees green (unroasted) from Caribbean Goods, a small importer based in Glasgow. It was founded by Javier Gutiérrez Abril, who grew up in Guatemala City and moved to Scotland to study at Strathclyde University.

Javier started the business after seeing that the farmers growing Guatemala’s exceptional coffee kept very little of the value it created. Caribbean Goods buys directly from the farms and cuts out the layers of middlemen that usually take that value. Many of the farmers in their network are people Javier has known since his school days. The team has personally met most of the producers they buy from, so every coffee comes with a clear record of where it was grown, who grew it and what they were paid.

There’s a practical benefit for a roastery like ours, too. Most green coffee importers are in big southern cities and sell in large lots. A Glasgow importer selling smaller bags means independent Scottish roasters can buy outstanding, traceable coffee without the cost of shipping it the length of the country.

The impact in your cup

Buying this coffee does more than pay a fair price:

• A tree for every bag. For every sack of Hunbatz green coffee we buy, Caribbean Goods plants a tree on our behalf through Trees for Life, the charity rewilding the Scottish Highlands. Coffee grown in the Guatemalan mountains helps restore native forest here in Scotland, not far from our own corner of Royal Deeside.
• Education in Guatemala. Caribbean Goods supports MAIA Impact School in Guatemala, which educates girls from Indigenous Maya communities. [Confirm with Caribbean Goods whether your Los Antiguos purchases contribute to this per sack.]
• Fair, long-term relationships. Paying farmers properly, and coming back season after season, gives growers the stability to invest in their farms, their quality and their families.

Roasted here in Banchory

The green beans travel from Guatemala to Glasgow, then up to us in Banchory. We roast in small batches on our own roaster, right in the café, usually in the evenings after we close. Roasting ourselves means we control every stage. We develop each coffee to bring out its best, blend the two to taste, and serve and sell it fresh, often within days of roasting.

Shipped from the gateway to Royal Deeside

You can drink our house blend in the café, take a bag home or order it online. Every bag is roasted, packed and posted from Banchory, so wherever you are, you get coffee straight from our roaster.

From smallholder farms in the Huehuetenango highlands, through a Glasgow importer, to our roaster in Banchory and on to your cup: this is the journey behind our house blend, and we’re proud of every step.

ORIGIN - Guatemala

LOCATION - Tectitán, Huehuetenango

ELEVATION - 1800-1900masl

HARVEST - 2023

PROCESSING MILL - tba

PROCESS - Washed

PLANT SPECIES - Arabica

PLANT VARIETY - Mixed