(Photo- Atlas Coffee)

Guatemala is known for their coffee. They are not like Ethiopia in terms of their time on the scene, but they came in late and hit very, very, hard. The Coordinadora de Organizactiones de Desarrollo de Concepcion Huisa (CODECH for short, or if you are not bilingual) is located at about 2,000m of elevation tucked into the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes, which is the highest mountain range in all of Central America. CODECH began in the late 90’s as a humble community project based on the hard work of three groups in the area: the local coffee producers' organization, the organization of midwives, and the municipal teachers' council. Even though coffee producers were involved in the original founding, farming was not in the front of their minds, at least to begin with. CODECH was founded by the Popti, Mam, and Q’anjob’al branches of the Mayan family in service of the need for broader community development, members of the community banding together to make their bonds with each other, and the people around them stronger. 

However, later on, they saw a need to sell coffee from local producers more fairly and ethically than the traditional Guatemalan coffee market yielded up to that point. Coffee farming began, and so did their membership.

Today, CODECH boasts roughly 1,300 members, with about 30% membership coming from women. The co-op specializes and takes pride in the entirety of the coffee process. They grow, harvest, wash, and dry their beans with extreme care, and the soil which they plant their coffee in gets that same amount of care too. 

The CODECH  farm has received and maintained both fair trade and organic certifications, and continues to pump out fantastic organic coffee harvested by farmers who are paid a good wage. And while their coffee might cost a little more than their competitors, CODECH puts the premiums to good use by funding an organic soil program to maintain the quality of their land and coffee that grows from it for years to come.

So, why did The Bitter Truth choose CODECH? The answer is pretty clear to me. Hard working people, interested in improving the lives of not only themselves, but their future members and the ground on which they walk on as well. They take extreme care and pride in the process of making their coffee delicious, and refuse cut corners on quality and sustainability, ultimately leading to a better tasting cup of coffee coming out of your machine of choice. The parallels are clear, the coffee tastes incredible, and the quality is hard to match within the region. When you drink a cup of CODECH coffee, you can expect heavy notes of chocolate, honey, roasted nuts, and caramel with just a hint of floral softness. Its a crowd pleaser. Doesn’t do too much and doesn’t try to trick you. A fastball 98mph on the black. Hard to beat.