About Us


First of all, what is direct trade and why do I care?

Direct trade is working directly with the coffee farm(s) that has worked so hard to provide you with your specialty green coffee, rather than sourcing through a distributor.

Some of the top benefits of this sourcing method include:

  • Ensuring you’re ethically sourcing your coffees
  • Fairly treated and compensated farmers
  • Fresh green coffee from the current season
  • You know exactly where your coffee came from
  • Learning to look beyond labels & certifications and learn more about coffee farming
  • No guesswork on the farming practices that got the green beans to your roaster

Essentially, your sourcing ensures the highest quality you can provide to your customers, while ensuring the sustainability of the coffee industry as we know it. Direct sourcing helps ensure we keep the varieties and nuances of coffee alive.

Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, we want to give you a quick lesson in Kafetos Guatemalan Coffee.

Bethel is Kafetos family owned coffee farm, located in the highlands on the border of Guatemala and Honduras (4,000+ ft above sea level). Bethel produces a high-quality, well balanced coffee that Kafetos is proud to say is farmed with the environment and consumer in mind.

Our land is not just a farm. It’s generations of hard work, it’s a home, it’s a way of life, and it’s the way we provide premium green coffees to the world in a sustainable manner.

More about our coffee:

  • Shade grown - Slower development cycle, creating more intense and fulfilling flavors
  • 100% Arabica - Large percentage grown on Bourbon & Typica coffee trees
  • Two-way washed with an environmentally sustainable process
  • Roasted chocolate and caramelized flavor notes
  • Excellent Medium - Dark Roast
  • We do all the importing and ship from our warehouse in the United States

What makes this coffee the highest quality? Bethel Coffee is grown at a high altitude in a shaded environment. This allows the beans to have a slow development cycle which instills an intense and fulfilling flavor to each bean.

The coffee is not only 100% Arabica, but more importantly it is grown on a large percentage of Bourbon and Typica coffee trees (which produce higher quality beans than other varieties of coffee trees). Finally, the coffee is prepared using an environmentally friendly three-way washing process, which gives the coffee still one more unique quality enhancing aspect. We also care about our environment therefore we do not use any harsh substances.

We have been part of the coffee industry for generations since the 1880s, selling coffee to various companies. Unfortunately, due to the current coffee prices established by large corporations, our farm has been barely sustaining enough to pay our hardworking farmers. Large corporations often buy coffee as a commodity, making millions in profits and not giving back to those who do the hard work, often in rough environments. We fear laying off employees who have been working for us for years or even for their entire lives just because the market does not do farmers justice. We made a Kickstarter to kickstart our business and to make living conditions better for those working directly with our coffee beans. All funds will go directly to employees as well as covering the costs of starting a new business. Please read our history to get a sense of why it is important to buy directly from farmers and to cut out the middleman.

In 2019, we had opened our own family business, Kafetos (based in Florida), in order to sell our premium coffee directly to consumers in the US while trying to improve the quality of life of our employees. We sell our coffee directly to you, straight from our farm located in the high lands of Guatemala. We are cutting the middleman and passing down the savings to you the consumers.

For our Specialty Coffee, we grow it, we process it, we export it green, and roast it, all within the family. We ensure delivery of fresh coffee to you within 24 hours, in order to preserve the highest quality of freshness. This is coffee with history, with pride and with high standards of quality. From the way we pick the red cherries, our unique way of washing and drying it, along with the way we store it is all done with care and with value. Our Specialty Premium Coffee is now available to you directly through our family site www.Kafetos.com.

In the 1880s our story and passion began when our great grandfathers purchased hundreds of acres of farmland in the border of Guatemala and Honduras in order to promote the growing of rich coffee in the highlands. They named the land Bethel, which means “The House of God” or “Gate of Heaven.” Our land grows one of the best Coffees in the world, and everything that has been planted there, grows to be the richest and the best.

1960s - Grandpa Leon working hard on the farm, but taking a break to pose for a picture.
1960s - Grandpa Leon working hard on the farm, but taking a break to pose for a picture.
Kafetos Coffee Co
Kafetos Coffee Co

What makes this coffee of the highest quality? 

Bethel Coffee is grown at a high altitude in a shaded environment. This allows the beans to have a slow development cycle which instills an intense and fulfilling flavor to each bean. The coffee is not only 100% Arabica, but more importantly, it is grown on a large percentage of Bourbon and Typica coffee trees (which produce higher quality beans than other varieties of coffee trees). Finally, the coffee is prepared using an environmentally friendly three-way washing process, which gives the coffee still one more unique quality enhancing aspect. We also care about our environment therefore we do not use any harsh substances.

Why purchase from Kafetos?

Because we care about families and fairness within a business. We see big named companies make millions of dollars from coffee sales while we also see them pay very low prices for the coffee purchased in foreign lands. Often times as a result, farmers end up paying pennies to their workers. We want to change that, and we will. Help us help them by buying directly from us. We promise to provide quality taste with an even fresher supply of coffee as we roast our freshly cropped beans within 24 hrs of a coffee order. Trust us in that you will also feel better knowing that you are drinking coffee that is helping fight against poverty and unfairness. 

If you back us you will receive the following coffee bag for you to enjoy! It is the freshest coffee you would ever have! Cropped in 2019 and roasted 24 hrs prior to delivery.

Did you know that in the current coffee industry, a coffee farmer has two big problems to face?

The  first problem is that they, unfortunately, lose control of their product when they sell their coffee fruit to companies and through  a middleman, from importers to exporters, to roasters. Companies and  middlemen are the ones benefiting from all the consumer revenue. The sad part is  that the actual farmers do not ever see any of the revenue created by this buying  and selling. 

And on top of losing control of the real value, farmers are also victim to a wildly fluctuating and sometimes arbitrary commodities market, which dictates the price of their coffee fruit. A farmer might work hard to produce the same amount of coffee with the same quality every single year but because of the commodities market, they might wake up one day and find out their product might be worth significantly less than the year prior.

But what if we told you, you can do something to change all of that? By buying coffee directly from Kafetos we can assure you that you are buying directly from a family owned farm, cutting out the middleman. Our supply chain allows our farmers to be involved with our crops all the way to you, the consumer. Our direct sales also allow farmers to make enough money to continue to feed and spend time with their families. As often times, farmers are paid pennies for their work and have to work overtime to just get by. This is how important it is for a farmer to see revenue and to be cutting out the middleman. 

We ask you to do your part as a consumer to get to know the story of the coffee you purchase. Do not just rely on labels that claim to be fair and direct; try to find out where your coffee comes from, to buy from specialty grade roasters that deal directly with farmers, and to spread the word. Just keep in mind that Kafetos exists to help give a better life for farmers and to fight off poverty instilled by big named companies all while providing you the best quality of coffee you can buy. 

Risks and challenges

To be completely honest with you all, our farm has been suffering due to the unfair commodities market. Kafetos was founded to create a better direct sales channel in the US while trying to give employees a livable wage. If Kafetos does not meet our goal or even a fragment of the goal we will not be able to continue to sustain the lives of our workers. We will be forced to continue to sell our coffee at an unfair and unlivable commodities prices. Which will force us to lay off many employees, some who have been working for us for their entire lives, and eventually cause us to shut down our plantations completely. If we do not win the fight against these unfair circumstances, other farmers will lose hope in the belief that companies will be willing to pay a fairer price. It will be a chain that will corner any farmer that wants to improve quality of life for all coffee farm workers. Large companies and middlemen will continue to make millions at the cost