Meet, Filiberto Salazar.

I’ve been drinking Don Filiberto’s Coffee for a few years now. My cousin is friends with Filiberto and after getting his coffee I’ve always wanted to meet him. Not going to lie it took me a few years to make a trip happen to Guatemala but I am so happy I went.  Filiberto was so generous to walk with us a few miles up a volcano/mountain (honestly not sure which it was, its very mountainous there) to see some of his coffee crop. Once we got there I want able to snap some photos for his business and enjoy him teaching us about the coffee process. Filiberto and his family have to walk up each day and work the entire day picking the ripe beans. They have to do this every day for a few weeks.

He likes to experiment with putting different fruit at the bottom of the coffee plants to alter the flavor of the coffee. He uses avocados, limes, oranges and more. 

Later he took us to his home where he showed us the rest of the process and taught us how he used to do things when he first started his coffee business. He used to have to separate the outside of the coffee beans with a man powered bike. This process take a few days as well.

Then the coffee beans are ready to be roasted and some are ground for packaging. Filiberto has a few different labels but my favorite is the one with his picture. It was really cool to put a face to the name. 

Then Filiberto welcomed us into his home and told us how he got started and how is company has expanded. He used to roast the coffee beens on the stove and used a stone to grind the coffee. The stone he used he still has and we were able to try it out. It was also his mother’s stone that was passed down to his wife as a tradition.  It was a lot harder to grind the coffee with the stone than it looked. My technique was not on point. 

After the tour was done we were able to enjoy Filiberto’s coffee fresh off of the rock. This business is a family business and the woman in the pictures is one of his daughters. 

It was a great experience FINALLY meeting Filiberto. While walking back from the field we ran into Filiberto’s brother. He is 74 years old and works in his own fields every day.

He talked to us about hard work, dancing and tequila being the key to life.

His point being that staying active is important and a little fun as well. 

Here is his contact information. I hope you all get to taste his coffee someday. 

Filiberto’s Business Facebook page

Filiberto’s Facebook

tofiliberto@gmail.com