Falla Family

About the Coffee

The Falla family has been growing coffee in the Antigua valley of Guatemala since 1890. Their farm, El Tempixque, sits in the Sacatepéquez region at 1,450 to 1,550 meters and takes its name from a tree that still stands at the farm's entrance. Estuardo Falla, the fourth generation of the family, has led operations since 1992, focusing on Bourbon and Caturra varieties, two older cultivars that have long defined what's known as the Genuine Antigua cup profile.

Washed processing means the coffee's outer fruit is removed before the beans are dried, which tends to produce a cleaner, more consistent cup. Estuardo has kept the farm focused on this traditional approach rather than chasing newer processing trends, while building out a professional team to manage consistency across harvests. This is Ethica's fourth consecutive year sourcing from El Tempixque, which says something about the reliability of what the Falla family produces year over year.

The farm grows exclusively Bourbon and Caturra, which are older, lower-yield varieties compared to many modern hybrids. Farmers often move away from these cultivars because they produce less per tree, but the Falla family has kept them because they hold up well in the Antigua terroir and have a long track record in this specific region of Guatemala.

About Ethica Coffee Roasters

Ethica Coffee Roasters is based in Toronto, where they operate out of a high-ceiling industrial space on Sterling Road. The name comes from Baruch Spinoza's Ethica Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata, a 17th-century philosophical text about aligning actions with reason and virtue. That framing shapes how they think about sourcing: they prioritize direct relationships with producers and pair those coffees with the farmers' stories.

Their approach to sourcing puts a premium on traceability. Rather than buying through intermediaries, Ethica works to build long-running partnerships with specific farms, which is why returning to the Falla family for a fourth consecutive year is consistent with how they operate. They roast for both espresso and filter, and their team includes trained Q Graders and baristas who also run public coffee courses and cuppings out of their Toronto location.

"There is an Ethica coffee that stands out in my mind - a Washed Castillo from Wilton Benitez that had rosemary as a tasting note. Yes, rosemary. I remember looking at that tasting note in disbelief, and then experiencing about the same disbelief by how much I loved the rosemary flavour!"

- Dean, Director of Coffee