Finca Filadelfia: The Guatemalan Coffee Farm Our Family Has Run for 150 Years
Finca Filadelfia: The Guatemalan Coffee Farm Our Family Has Run for 150 Years
There are coffee brands that tell origin stories. And there are coffee brands where the origin is the story.
Rascal Coffee is the second kind.
Guatemala: Why It Produces Exceptional Coffee
Guatemala doesn't produce the most coffee in the world. That's Brazil. It doesn't produce the most famous coffee in the world — that title, fairly or not, still goes to Ethiopia. But among people who study coffee seriously, Guatemala — and specifically the Antigua region — consistently appears at the top of any conversation about quality.
Here's why.
Altitude. Coffee ripens slowly at altitude, and slow ripening means more complex sugars, more nuanced acidity, more developed flavour. In Antigua, farms sit at 1,400 to 1,700 metres above sea level. At that height, the beans have time to become something worth drinking.
Volcanic soil. The Antigua valley is ringed by three volcanoes: Acatenango, Agua, and Fuego. The soil is rich with minerals that pass into the plant, then into the bean. This is part of why Antigua coffee has a particular clarity — a precision to the flavour that more saturated soils don't produce.
Climate. The dry season in Antigua runs November through April — the same period as harvest. This is fortunate: coffee cherries that dry slowly in cool air, without humidity or unpredictable rain, develop more consistently. The result is a cup that tastes like what you were promised on the bag.
Variety. Guatemala grows predominantly Bourbon and Caturra — two older varieties that have adapted to the region over generations. They don't produce the freakish cup profiles of some processed Ethiopian naturals, but they produce something arguably more valuable: consistency, year after year, from the same plants.
Finca Filadelfia: Founded 1870
Manuel Matheu Sinibaldi arrived in Antigua in 1870 and planted coffee. That farm became Finca Filadelfia, and it has been in the Matheu family since.
More than 150 years later, we — the direct descendants of Manuel — still grow, harvest, and process coffee on the same land. The farm covers several hundred acres across the volcanic foothills north of Antigua city, at an average altitude of 1,580 metres.
We use a washed processing method: the cherry is removed from the bean immediately after harvest, and the bean is washed and dried under the sun on raised beds. This is the traditional Antigua method, and it produces the clean, precise cup profile that the region is known for — fruit-forward acidity, milk chocolate body, no muddiness.
What We Harvest
The farm grows two primary varieties: Bourbon and Caturra.
Bourbon is one of the oldest coffee varieties in the world — a natural mutation that emerged on the island of Réunion (formerly Bourbon) from the original Yemeni Arabica. It produces a lower yield than modern varieties but a more complex, rounded cup. In Antigua's volcanic soil, it expresses a particular sweetness.
Caturra is a natural mutation of Bourbon — smaller, more productive, with brighter acidity. When grown at altitude in good soil, it adds a citrus sharpness that balances Bourbon's body.
Together, they make a cup that is balanced in a way that is difficult to describe and easy to taste. The Filadelfia Bourbon & Caturra Washed is, in the opinion of the people who grow it, the finest cup that Antigua produces.
In 2026, Anacafé — Guatemala's national coffee authority — agreed. Finca Filadelfia Bourbon & Caturra was named Best Coffee of Antigua 2026 at their national quality competition.
What “Direct from the Farm” Actually Means
Most coffee passes through several hands between farm and roastery. An exporter buys from farmers. A broker sells to importers. An importer sells to roasters. Each step is legitimate — but each step adds cost and, usually, removes information.
When we say Rascal Coffee sources directly from Finca Filadelfia, we mean it in the most literal possible sense. The farm is our family's. We know every harvest. We know which lots are exceptional and which are average. We make the decisions about how to process and when to ship.
What that means for you: you know exactly where your coffee came from. Not “a farm in Guatemala.” Finca Filadelfia, planted 1870, grown at 1,580 metres in volcanic soil, harvested by hand every January and February.
That's the whole chain. No guessing.
A Note on Why We Roast in East London
We roast in Hackney because that's where Rascal Coffee is based — and because London is one of the most sophisticated specialty coffee markets in the world. The people who buy Rascal Coffee are, by and large, serious about what they drink. They know what they're looking for.
We roast every Tuesday. Orders ship by Thursday. Everything you buy was roasted within the week.
Guatemalan coffee that has crossed the Atlantic and been held in a warehouse for a year is not the same coffee. Freshness is not a marketing term. It's the difference between a 7/10 and a 10/10 in your cup.
Try It
If you've never had Guatemalan coffee, or you've had it but not from this farm, the Filadelfia Bourbon & Caturra is the place to start.
Shop Finca Filadelfia Bourbon & Caturra →
If you're already a Filadelfia regular and want to go deeper: the Santa Irene Bourbon Sidra is a rare micro-lot from another Guatemalan farm — a different varietal, different altitude, naturally processed. It's as different from Filadelfia as a Burgundy is from a Bordeaux.