Additional information:
Finca Concepcion Pixcayá was founded in 1926 by Sr. Carlos Mirón Armas andSra. Maria Muñoz de Mirón. Thefarm’s current owner, Sr. Manuel Zaghi Mirón is the fourth generation of his family to work this land, and he maintainsthe farmin pristine condition with the help of his mother, Maria Mirón de Zaghi.
Before being bought by the Mirón Muñoz family, the farm wasowned by the Catholic Church. At that time, there wasa big Spanish-style house built by the former bishops who ran theplace, but it was, sadly,completely destroyed in the1976 Guatemala earthquake.The family has erected a large and beautiful home on the propertyin its place,which iscurrently usednot only as the family home but alsoas a(part-time)hotel and restaurant, serving employees of andvisitors to the nearby cement factory.The farm keeps the nameof the original location, and ‘Concepción’ containsreference to the convent which once stood here.
Although not far from Guatemala City, as the crow flies, thedrive up to the farmfollowsdusty, rough roads through amultitude of villages.The farm itselfismid-sized, covering around 150hectares; however,the area under coffee onlyextends acrossjust over 22hectares at aprime coffee-growingaltitude of 1,900metreson average.The rest of theland isdevoted to macadamia nut farming, which is the farm’s primary agricultural product and covers just over 51hectares. The rest of the land is kept under forest cover as conservation area.The combination of soil,climate andaltitude make for amazing coffee producing land, as evidenced by the farm’s performance at the Guatemala Cup ofExcellence competition, in which they have placed no fewer than four times!
Various coffee varietieshave beentrialledat Concepción, Pixcayáover the years, but ultimately Manuel and hisforefathers concluded that the traditional Bourbon variety performed the best with regards to cup quality. Giving thedisease-susceptible variety the attention it deserves is one reason the familyhave limited the land that they plant undercoffee. Thefarm is replanted from specially selected seeds from the best coffee trees within the farmand each tree isgiven exacting attention.
