La Gran Manzana

Angel Alejandro Morales De La Peña

12

The first time Alejandro went to a farm he was 6 years old, since then he love to visit ROSMA the farm of his father, all his childhood he joined his Dad to the farm and asked as many things as he could and that is how he got in loved with coffee. He moved to Guatemala City for 18 years until 2015 Alejandro went back to Huehuetenango city with his family to stablish and get back to work in the coffee business. He bought a land near Huehuetenango City and his dream was to have his own farm, but climate conditions in Huehuetenango City is not so good for coffee plantations; with the experience of the family growing coffee for more than 40 years the plantation started with a manual irrigation system and having planning to get an exotic variety he started the nursery of Gesha. The farm was called LA GRAN MANZANA because it is a beautiful garden of coffee into the city, Alejandro´s mother got the idea of the name.

In 2021 the first crop had given the flavors expected but the coffee trees needed to be more healthy for growing; so after a big effort the irrigation system was upgraded getting more water for the trees, and it allowed to performed fertilization with the irrigation and algo applied techniques to reenforced and enriched the soiled with organic fertilized.

During the firsts years, different processes were carried out to determine the best process for the variety and for the microclimate conditions; with the help of his brother Fredy, They determined together through many tastings that the best process with which many flavors and textures were explored was the Natural process with slow drying in the greenhouse and obtain 2022 COE 4th place and 2024 COE 3rd place. In 2025 after developed a better technique for irrigation Alejandro and Fredy tried for a Fully Washed process and the surprise was that thank to have more water the flavor developed a significant change and that is how in 2025 La Gran Manzan achieve 1st place in COE.

The goal at La Gran Manzana is to produce Gesha of the highest level for connoisseurs around the world who are looking for such an exotic type of coffee.