Quetzal Mountain Coffee Company was born after we became the proprietors of a small coffee farm in western Panama. After two years and a first season of processing our own beans we realized that we were producing excellent tasting coffee of a very high quality that was really not much different than other locally produced, award winning coffees. Our mission is to provide you with great tasting, high quality coffees for a fraction of that of our famous neighbors.
Whilst settling in to our new home, we hiked some of the trails up and around the active volcano that is home to our farm. Part way up a steep trail we came across a small group of birders who had gathered and were quietly pointing out a rare and incredibly beautiful bird that turned out to be a Resplendent Quetzal. The bird has a striking bright green iridescent body, red breast and a long, majestic blue-green tail. Depending on the light, quetzal feathers can shine in a variety of colors: green, cobalt, lime, yellow and ultramarine. Their habitat is high up in the cloud forest from southern Mexico to western Panama and we are told we were extremely lucky to have had two separate sightings that day. We chose the quetzal as the namesake for our coffee because of the unique beauty it represents in our local area .
Volcan Baru sits near the border with Costa Rica in the mountains that form the backbone of Central America. Baru is an active stratovolcano and the tallest mountain in Panama, at almost 3,500 meters (11,400ft). Due to its height and the narrowness of the isthmus of Panama, it is possible to see both the Pacific Ocean and Caribbean Sea from the summit on a clear day. The ash and lava from the volcano’s last eruption over a thousand years ago have greatly influenced the soils and ecosystem, which combine to make a utopia for coffee growing.
Why buy coffee from Quetzal Mountain Coffee Co?
Our coffee is from only one finca – a single, controlled source – it is able to deliver a more consistent level of excellence to the coffee lover. Each cherry is and has been hand picked by the same family each year since we began operations. We planted the trees ourselves and now the cherries and beans are washed and handled by us, including every step from picking to sacking the green beans for shipment. If you buy our roasted coffee it is roasted at one of three locations to ensure its freshness in your cup. We will ship a limited amount on subscription that is roasted right here on the farm, meaning the coffee starts it’s life on the tree and ends up in the bag that’s on your kitchen counter, all within a few hundred meters, start to finish. Our coffee beans are shipped green to the US in order to maintain freshness and then roasted at a specialty roaster partner in NY State. Likewise, we ship only green beans to the UK where they are freshly roasted, packaged and shipped to you.
Quetzal Mountain coffee is delivered directly from our farm in the Highlands of Chiriqui in western Panama to you. It doesn’t journey through a gauntlet of buyers, exporters, importers, storage facilities (local or abroad), and is never mixed with other coffees prior to, or during roasting. It is 100% Panamanian, high-elevation Arabica from our farm and we know you will love it as much as we do.
