High in the volcanic landscapes of Guatemala, where coffee grows between Agua, Fuego and Acatenango, Josué Morales has spent more than twenty years trying to understand what makes a coffee truly exceptional. His journey began in 2003, buying and trading coffee across Guatemala, following samples back to the farms they came from and slowly building relationships with the people who grew them. What began as a pursuit of quality eventually became something much bigger: a way of working that connects coffee, soil, people and place. Today, through Los Volcanes Coffee, Josué works with producers across Guatemala and Brazil, building a supply chain around traceability, long-term relationships and the belief that quality is something designed, not discovered by chance.
His thinking changed when he began producing coffee himself. At Finca La Esperanza, a small farm in Antigua, he was confronted with exhausted soil, coffee leaf rust and a landscape that had little life left in it. Instead of simply replacing the trees and continuing as before, Josué began experimenting. In 2016, the farm became the foundation for Los Volcanes’ organic soil programme, moving away from conventional agriculture and towards practices centred around soil health, biodiversity and the natural metabolism of the plant. The process was far from straightforward. Years of failed experiments, difficult harvests and unexpected challenges eventually taught the team that sometimes the best way to help a farm recover is to give the land time and space to do so.
La Esperanza has since become a kind of living laboratory. Organic compost, shade management, soil regeneration and different coffee varieties are tested there, with the lessons shared through workshops with the producers Los Volcanes works alongside. The farm is not treated as a finished model but as a place for constant learning. What works there is adapted to the very different soils, climates and realities of other farms.
But Josué's work has never been only about the land. Early experiences working with farming communities taught him that a coffee supply chain can look successful on paper while completely misunderstanding the people inside it. He began to see that relationships, trust, financial security and local realities matter just as much as agricultural knowledge. Today, Los Volcanes works towards longer-term relationships with producers, year-round education, better prices and purchasing entire harvests rather than only selecting the exceptional lots.
For Josué, organic and regenerative coffee is therefore not simply a certification or a farming technique. It is part of a broader question: what happens when we start treating coffee as a living system rather than a commodity? The answer can be found in healthier soils, more resilient farms, stronger relationships and, ultimately, coffees that carry a clearer sense of where they came from.
That philosophy sits at the heart of Los Volcanes and at the heart of what we do at Uncommon. Their coffees are not simply selected for what they taste like but for the people, landscapes and years of work behind them. We’ve visited Josué and his farms a number of times over the years and have enjoyed getting to know him and the work behind Los Volcanes along the way. We’re proud to support what he is building and to share coffees that reflect his commitment to the land, the people around him and the future of coffee. In the volcanic highlands of Guatemala, Josué continues to experiment, question and learn, using coffee as a way to build something more lasting than a great cup: a supply chain where the health of the land and the people who care for it are part of the quality itself.
