Vecinos Blend (Neighbors Community Center) Bags of Coffee

Sweet, crisp, and balanced, with hints of chocolate, caramel, and almond, from the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala. Vecinos is the word for Neighbors in Spanish, the official and most spoken language of Guatemala. The coffee beans are organically grown and fairly traded, and air roasted in small batches in Lancaster, Pa.

The Country
Guatemala is the northernmost Central American country, just south of Mexico. The varied landscape of this country stretches from just south of the Yucatan peninsula all the way to the Pacific (with a stretch of Carribean oceanfront, many mountains, rainforests and cloud forests, and a string of 27 volcanoes in between). Springlike temperatures year ‘round allow for long growing seasons, and the people do not let the mountainous landscape stop them from farming! The many mountains and hills make travelling from place to place in Guatemala more challenging than in flat parts of the world.

The Coffee
It is uncertain when coffee came to Guatemala (it is suspected that it arrived with Jesuit missionaries). Records show coffee being grown in Guatemala in the mid 1700s. By the late 1800s, large coffee estates (fincas) began to grow and export coffee. Many of them are still growing and exporting their coffees. Coffee is grown in 20 of Guatemala’s 22 departments, producing eight distinct regions of coffee. The Huehuetenango region, in west-central Guatemala, boasts high altitudes, but the hot (and dry) winds that blow in from Mexico keep the frost away, so coffee can grow well in the area. The coffee in this region is harvested December to May.

About Neighbors Community Center
Lancaster is home to new neighbors from many countries and is frequently referenced as one of the leading immigrant cities in the US. At Neighbors Community Center, people from around the world connect, learn, and celebrate together.

Neighbors Community Center is a multicultural gathering place that provides a variety of programs and services for refugees and immigrants in collaboration with local partners, and hosts a variety of cultural events for the general public.