Finca Guadalupe Zaju has a long standing in the history of coffee production in Mexico. Located in the famous Soconusco region of Chiapas, it was first established in 1890, before being taken over by a German-Mexican couple in 1945. The couple diligently tended to the farm for almost 60 years, before selling to the current owner Eduardo ‘Teddy’ Esteves.

Teddy and his family have been involved in coffee, tea and cocoa for over 150 years. Bringing this wealth of experience and knowledge to Guadalupe Zaju has allowed the farm to flourish in recent years. 100% of the coffee is shade grown, with meticulous attention paid to picking, fertilising and pruning. Older, less productive parts of the farm have been renovated with hybrid varieties (in fact half the farm is now Marsellesa) that have high yield and excellent cup quality. There is a full time agronomy and management team dedicated to each lot of the estate, as neighbouring farms such as La Gloria and Chanjul have been purchased under the Guadalupe Zaju name in recent years. Teddy has also called upon post harvest experts to consult on processing and drying at the farm, including Aida Battle and, most recently, Camilo Merizalde of the Santuario Project.

Its been this more recent partnership between Teddy and Camilo from the Santaurio Project that has been most fruitful! A mutual understanding on quality excellence and innovation has led to Ixhuatlan del cafe processing centre being built. It is a fully integrated facility, with wet and dry mills, greenhouses and drying areas, coffee garden, laboratory and a warehouse all dedicated to achieving quality excellence. The Ixhuatlan centre works with small producers from Veracruz to produce and isolate only the most exceptional lots, which are then processed under the watchful eye of the expert processing managers of the Santuario project.