Many believe that coffee was first introduced to Guatemala by the Jesuits around 1750, though there are accounts of it being grown and served in the country in 1747. As in El Salvador, coffee only became an important crop in Guatemala after 1856, when the invention of chemical dyes reduced demand for indigo, which was at that time the main cash crop.
The government had already made some attempts to diversify away from indigo. In 1845 it formed the Commission for Coffee Cultivation and Promotion, which produced educational materials for coffee producers and also helped establish a price and levels of quality. In 1868 the government distributed around one million coffee seeds, in an effort to further stimulate the industry.
When Justo Rufino Barrios came to power in 1871 he made coffee the backbone of the economy. Unfortunately, his reforms resulted in the indigenous people of Guatemala being further deprived of their land, as they led to the sale of around 400,000 hectares (990,000 acres) of what was considered public land. These became large coffee plantations. The efforts to stimulate coffee production certainly worked, however, and by 1880 coffee made up around ninety per cent of Guatemala’s exports.
Coffee would again be involved in the country’s politics following the global depression in 1930. Jorge Ubico had come to power and worked to lower the price of coffee to help stimulate export. He built extensive infrastructure, but gave more power and land to the United Fruit Company (UFC), an American corporation that grew to be extremely powerful. Ubico ultimately resigned due to a general strike and protests against him.
There followed a period of democratic free speech, and President Arbenz proposed a land reform act in 1953 to expropriate land (largely that controlled by the UFC) to redistribute it for agricultural purposes. Both large coffee plantation owners and the UFC (supported by the US State Department) fought against the reforms. In 1954 a CIA coup overthrew the Arbenz government and the proposed land reforms never took place. This set the country down a path towards a civil war that lasted from 1960 to 1996. Many of the issues that provoked the war – poverty, land distribution, hunger, and racism towards indigenous people – are still issues today.
Guatemala’s coffee production peaked at the turn of the millennium, as many producers moved away from coffee into macadamia nuts and avocados after the coffee crisis in 2001. Coffee leaf rust has also been an increasing problem for producers throughout the country, damaging a large portion of their production.
TRACEABILITY
Guatemalan coffees should be traceable down to farm level, or down to a cooperative or producer group. While some regions in Guatemala are now protected denominations of origin, the country has a long history of traceability and estates producing high-quality coffee because many farmers have their own wet mills and process their own coffee.
ALTITUDE GRADING
Similar to other Central American countries, Guatemala uses a version of the altitude grading.
Prime: grown at 750–900m (2,500–3,000ft)
Extra Prime: grown at 900–1,050m (3,000–3,500ft) Semi Hard Bean: grown at 1,050–1,220m (3,500–4,000ft) Hard Bean (HB): grown at 1,220–1,300m (4,000–4,300ft) Strictly Hard Bean (SHB): grown over 1,300m (4,300ft)
Many Guatemalan farmers have their own wet mills and coffee production facilities, which aids traceability of beans.
TASTE PROFILE
A wide range of flavours are present in Guatemala’s coffees, from lighter, very sweet, fruity and complex coffees through to the heavier, richer and more chocolatey cups.
GROWING REGIONS
Population: 16,176,000
Number of 60kg (132lb) bags in 2016: 3,500,000
Guatemala has been more successful than most countries at defining its key regions, and marketing the coffees from these regions as being quite different from each other. In my experience, there are some flavour characteristics more common in certain regions, but there are no hard and fast rules for this.
SAN MARCOS
San Marcos is both the warmest and the rainiest of the coffee-growing regions in Guatemala. The rains come earlier to the mountain slopes facing the Pacific, so flowering is generally earlier too. The rainfall can provide challenges to post-harvest drying, so some farms rely on a mixture of sun drying and mechanical drying. Agriculture is a large part of the economy in this department, which produces grain, fruit, meat and wool.
Altitude: | 1,300–1,800m (4,300–5,900ft) |
Harvest: | December–March |
Varieties: | Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai |
ACATENANGO
Coffee production in this region is centred around the Acatenango valley, which is named after the volcano there. In the past, many producers here sold their coffee to ‘coyotes’ who would ship the cherries over to the Antigua region and process it there. Antigua had a better reputation for coffee, and so it commanded a higher price. This practice is now less common, as coffees from Acatenango can be excellent and are becoming more widely recognized so it is more profitable to keep them properly traceable.
Altitude: | 1,300–2,000m (4,300–6,600ft) |
Harvest: | December–March |
Varieties: | Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai |
ATITLÁN
The coffee farms here are located around lake Atitlán. Sitting at around 1,500m (4,900ft) above sea level, the lake has captured the minds of writers and travellers over many years because of its stunning beauty. In the late morning and early afternoon, strong winds are common here and are known locally as xocomil, ‘the winds that carry away sin’.
There are a number of private nature reserves here, set up to preserve the biodiversity of the area and help prevent deforestation. Coffee production is under pressure due to increased labour costs and competition for the labour force. Urban sprawl is also increasing pressure on land use and some farmers are finding it is more profitable to sell their land than continue to grow coffee.
Altitude: | 1,500–1,700m (4,900–5,600ft) |
Harvest: | December–March |
Varieties: | Bourbon, Typica, Caturra, Catuai |
COBÁN
This region is named after the town of Cobán, which grew and thrived due to the German coffee producers who held a great deal of power here until the end of World War II. The lush rainforest comes with a very wet climate, which proves something of a challenge to coffee drying. The region is also somewhat remote, making transport more difficult and expensive but there are, nonetheless, stunning coffees coming from here.
Altitude: | 1,300–1,500m (4,300–4,900ft) |
Harvest: | December–March |
Varieties: | Bourbon, Maragogype, Catuai, Caturra, Pache |
NUEVO ORIENTE
Unsurprisingly for a region whose name means ‘New East’, Nuevo Oriente is located in the east of the country by the border with Honduras. The climate is dryer here and most of the coffee is produced by smallholders. Coffee production arrived here quite late, beginning in the 1950s.
Altitude: | 1,300–1,700m (4,300–5,600ft) |
Harvest: | December–March |
Varieties: | Bourbon, Catuai, Caturra, Pache |
HUEHUETENANGO
This is one of the better-known regions of Guatemala, and the most enjoyable to pronounce. The name translates from the Nahautl as ‘place of the ancients’ or ‘place of the ancestors’. This area has the highest non-volcanic mountains in Central America and they are well suited to coffee growing. This region is probably the most dependent on coffee as an export and there are some truly astonishing coffees produced here.
Altitude: | 1,500–2,000m (4,900–6,600ft) |
Harvest: | January–April |
Varieties: | Bourbon, Catuai, Caturra |
FRAIJANES
This coffee-growing plateau surrounds the capital of Guatemala City. There is fairly regular volcanic activity in the area, which benefits the soil, but occasionally also endangers life and causes problems with infrastructure. Unfortunately the amount of land under coffee continues to decrease as the city grows and land use changes.
Altitude: | 1,400–1,800m (4,600–5,900ft) |
Harvest: | December–February |
Varieties: | Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai, Pache |
ANTIGUA
Antigua is probably the best-known coffee-producing region in Guatemala, and one of the best-known in the world. The region is named after the city of Antigua, famous for its Spanish architecture and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The region attained a Denomination of Origin in 2000 under the name ‘Genuine Antigua Coffee’, after the market had become devalued by coffee fraudulently labelled as Antigua. This has prevented coffee from other origins being sold as Antigua, but it has not stopped the fraudulent practice of bringing cherries in from other regions to be processed there. Nonetheless, it is possible to find clearly traceable coffees from Antigua and while some are overpriced, others are of excellent quality and are worth seeking out.
Altitude: | 1,500–1,700m (4,900–5,600ft) |
Harvest: | January–March |
Varieties: | Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai |
Though changing land use and varying temperatures influence the amount of coffee produced and the way it is processed in Guatemala, much of the coffee is treated in the traditional way and dried by sun.