Guatemalan Huehuetenango Single Origin Coffee

Roast: Medium  |  Region: Huehuetenango, Guatemala  |  Altitude: 1,800–2,000 MASL
Cup: Medium acidity, medium body, lemon/lime, nougat, brown sugar

Four hundred family-owned farms, and the average producer here cultivates coffee on about two acres — intercropped with the corn and beans their own family eats. That's the scale we're talking about.

At that size, nobody can afford a wet mill. So these producers partnered with an export company that built a centrally located mill in Huehuetenango where growers can deliver cherry directly. It's the difference between selling a raw crop at whatever price is offered and delivering properly processed coffee to an international market.

The same organisation established CoffeeCare, focused on education, nutrition and health — specifically so producers have somewhere safe to send their children to learn and play during harvest, when every adult hand is in the field. That's a real problem being solved, not a brochure line.

Bourbon, Catuai and Caturra, grown in clay mineral soil at 1,800 metres and up, fully washed and finished in both sun and mechanical dryers. It cups bright and sweet: lemon-lime up front, nougat and brown sugar underneath.

Brew it: pour-over for the citrus, drip for the sugar. Standard grind either way.

Pairs with: early morning, and something you're reading for pleasure.