La Revuelta Amatitlan Bourbon Fully Washed

Finca La Revuelta was part of a larger Hacienda called Belen in the town Pampichin. During the late 1700 and early 1800 Pampichin was abandoned. After the Guatemalan independence (1821), the Jesuits sold the hacienda to Doroteo Samayoa and the area became to be known as Belen. At the time Belen produced Nopal (cactus) used to make black ink for dying cloth and it was exported mainly to Europe.

When artificial black colourings were developed in the late 19th and early 20th century the Hacienda was no longer profitable. My family started switching to other products like panela, cattle, and the introduction of coffee. In the 1950s, the owner of the hacienda Margarita Samayoa (daughter of Doroteo), converted the hacienda into one of the largest coffee plantations in Guatemala.

At the end of the 1950s Margarita decided to leave the farm as an inheritance to her nephews and nieces. Many years later in 1995, my father Christian bought a piece of land that was then founded as Finca La Revuelta, which I help manage today. I also have partnered with Mario Alarcon, a coffee farmer in Acatenango, to create an exporting business called Truth Trading Company.

[Christian Starry (left) and Mario Alarcon]
“The dream of exporting had started 18 months earlier when Mario and Chris took a trip to the Coffee Fest in Seattle. At the time, Christian’s father had just started managing the family’s farms, El Xalum and La Revuelta, and Mario was getting involved with his family’s production at fincas Monte de Oro and El Recuerdo. “We went to look for customers for our farms because we knew we couldn’t rely on exporters. They paid us very late, the prices were bad and we had no contact with the roasters. The future of our farms depended on us finding clients,” Christian told us.”