Coffee History

Today we travel to Guatemala, a volcanic region of Central America, called by the Guatemalans themselves “Land of Eternal Spring”, having circumstances and variables essential to produce sublime qualities of Arabica coffee.

The volcanic soil, the mountain ranges and the cold winds coming from the Cuchumatanes mountains which meet the warm air from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, allow the coffee plant to be grown up to 2000 meters above sea level, as well as obtaining a coffee of the highest quality!

Arrival of coffee in Guatemala

The cultivation of coffee began in Guatemala in 1750 by the Jesuit colonizers, to arrive up to today with exports of four million bags and moreover of the best quality.

It took about 100 years for coffee cultivation to spread consistently throughout the entire state. It was precisely the government that in 1868 distributed about a million seeds and formed the Commission for the cultivation and promotion of coffee, so as to educate and stimulate the production of the drink, also establishing quality standards and work processes.

Thanks to this, from 1880 coffee became the real backbone of the country’s economy, making up about 90% of exports.

Zone

In Guatemala, coffee farmers are generally small owners who work independently or are loosely linked by proximity and cultural ties. Most of the farmers fall into one of the more than 20 indigenous groups recognized by the state, constituting a great cultural and linguistic heterogeneity.

Only a few others have formally affiliated with cooperative associations.

The producing areas are modest in size, and offer regional organoleptic profiles that are very different from them, thanks to the different varieties and microclimates.

We focus particularly on the Huehuetenango region, which translates into “place of the ancients” or “place of the ancestors”, as well as the former capital of the Mam kingdom, until 1525.

The indigenous peoples, who make up the large majority of the inhabitants, are descended from different peoples Mayans, each with a distinct culture and language.

This area is located in the northwestern part of Guatemala, on the border with Mexico, and has an extraordinary variety of ecosystems, from humid subtropical forest, to pine forests, as well as having the highest non-volcanic mountains in Central America.

All this gives life to a coffee with a marked acidity, accompanied by fruity or even vinous notes, if grown above 1800 meters.

And that’s exactly how our Guatemala Huehuetenango SHB is: a coffee with good acidity, characterized by notes of yellow-fleshed fruit and hints of red fruits, accompanied by sweet notes of milk chocolate!

Other coffee growing areas are:

• San Marco, the hottest and rainiest of the regions. Rain is a big challenge when drying the drupes in the sun. Here the coffee is delicate, floral and fruity;
• Atitlàn has several nature reserves established to preserve the area’s biodiversity and help prevent deforestation. With a soil rich in nutrients and winds that come from the waters of a nearby lake, a unique microclimate is created in the world, which gives surprising aromatic notes with a strong body;
• Coban, with its lush rainforest characterized by a humid and misty climate, is a remote and hidden area, which produces coffees with unique and delicate fruity notes;
• Fraijanes is an area with fairly regular volcanic activity, from which the soil derives various benefits, but at the same time endangers the lives of many farmers. Here the climate changes from one hour to the next, giving a pronounced acidity and a well-defined body;
• Antigua is instead the best known of the areas, famous for its cities with Spanish architecture, a UNESCO heritage site. In 2000 it also obtained the Denomination of Origin with the name “Genuine Antigua Coffee”. The coffee here is more balanced and sweet;
• Finally, Acatenango Valley is a more recent area of ​​coffee cultivation, in which the beans are grown between 1800 and 2000 meters, thanks to an artificial forest that protects and strengthens the coffee plants, as well as the presence of the Volcan de Fuego which provides the soil with important nutrients. All this makes the coffee particularly acidic and persistent over time.

In general, Guatemalan coffees are characterized by a wide range of flavors: from the lightest, very sweet, fruity and complex ones, to the richest cups and with important chocolaty notes.

I can’t wait to travel backpacking through Guatemala, talking to different local people, trying to get to know the different traditions and languages, as well as tasting the coffees, savoring them to the fullest and discovering the different tastes of their lands, enclosed in small microclimates and ecosystems that are always different and unique in the world! 

Our Guatemala Huehuetenango SHB Specialty Coffee is excellent in every extraction: from espresso, to moka to filter coffees for percolation and infusion.

https://www.caffeernani.com/en/category/how-to-make-coffee/

Discover all the characteristics of coffee in the product description and enjoy!

Curiosity

If you want to travel to the plantations of Guatemala, I recommend the period between August and October, to see the plants full of fruit and their subsequent harvest!

Furthermore, the coffee is classified by region of origin and by cultivation altitude. For this acronyms are used:

• Prime: grown at 750-900 meters
• Extra Prime: grown at 900-1050 meters
  Semi Hard Bean: grown at 1050-1220 meters
• Hard Bean: grown at 1220-1300 meters
• Strictly Hard Bean: over 1300 meters. This is why our Guatemala Huehuetenango has the initials SHB next to it, precisely because it was grown between 1350 and 1500 meters above sea level!