When we ask Isidro Valdes about his farm’s core vision, he gives his answer in a dignified, resolute tone: “Quality over quantity.” Valdes’s farm, the San Rafael Urias Estate, has been operating for three generations in Antigua, one of Guatemala’s most storied coffee-growing regions. “Just have a look. You’ll see what makes this place special.” Isidro says. He steers his truck up a low hill, revealing a spectacular view: Three majestic volcanoes towering in the distance, with one, the active Volcán de Fuego, puffing little spurts of ash on a daily basis. The Valdes family coffee farm sits between the volcanoes in a quiet valley, which Isidro tells us was once the bottom of an ancient lake—and the rich, abundant soil nourishing the farm speaks to that legacy.

“We do all the weeding by hand.” Isidro says. Herbicides would obviously make the process much less time and labor-intensive, but Isidro never even considers using artificial means. For him, the soil is a gift—a gift from nature, an inheritance from his forebears—to cherish. The soil isn’t the only treasure Isidro holds close to his heart, though. Another heirloom is the Valdes family’s time-honored coffee-cultivation and processing method which has endured since his ancestors planted their first seeds. The farm specializes in the Bourbon cultivar, a traditional Guatemalan variety with a long history but a problematic vulnerability to disease. Considering the challenges in growing the Bourbon variety, the Valdes family could reap bigger harvests if they switched to adifferent cultivar—but, as Isidro stresses, quantity isn’t the focus. The family puts its pickers through a rigoroustraining program, showing them the perfect cherry-picking procedure, and selects only the reddest, ripestones for production. The farm uses a double-fermentation process, too, aiming to avoid any of the over-fermentation that the single-fermentation approach can cause.

It all comes back to “quality over quantity”—a mantra that you can see in everything the Valdes family does. That devotion to quality is evident in the numerous awards that San Rafael Urias Estate beans have taken home, as well, including the prestigious Guatemala “Cup of Excellence” for being one of the best coffees in the country. We ask Isidro how he, as a tradition-valuing, quality-first coffee planter, wants the next generation to carry the business forward. “I want them to keep our techniques alive,” he says. “But I’m not going to be hanging’em up anytime soon.” he adds, flashing a playful grin.