Guatemalan Huehuetenango

About

This Huehuetenango San Pedro Necta green coffee comes from Huixoc-Merino, a local group of smallholder farmers in Guatemala. About 250 families grow it, on farms that average just a few acres each. Instead of each family buying processing equipment, they deliver their cherries daily to a central wet mill. The exporter CAFCOM set up that mill with the group, and one shared protocol keeps the community lot consistent.

San Pedro Necta sits in Huehuetenango, the highest and driest of the three non-volcanic coffee regions of Guatemala. Hot, dry winds from the Tehuantepec plain in Mexico keep frost away, so coffee grows as high as 2,000 meters. The municipality has a largely Mam population, and more than half of its land is in coffee. This lot grew at 1,400 to 1,850 masl on clay soils, with harvest from December to June.

Tasting Notes

A sweet Huehue with a hint of citrus and fruit balanced with a creamy chocolate/malt base note, great from light to dark roasts. Light roasts bring bright, juicy acidity with a grape skin like fruitiness, a lighter body with just a little hint of a nutty/chocolate undertone. At medium the cup gets rounder, with a buttery texture, milk chocolate and a softer stone fruit acidity. Dark roasts mute the acidity and most of the fruit. The body gets heavier, and the chocolate moves toward cocoa with a toasty finish.