Guatemala

Eight ANACAFÉ-defined coffee regions, five volcanic and three not, with cups that range from chocolatey to floral.

ANACAFÉ (Asociación Nacional del Café, established in 1960) groups Guatemalan coffee into eight named regions: Acatenango Valley, Antigua, Traditional Atitlán, Rainforest Cobán, Fraijanes Plateau, Highland Huehuetenango, New Oriente and Volcanic San Marcos. Its profiles treat five as volcanic and three (Huehuetenango, Cobán and Oriente) as non-volcanic, with cups ranging from chocolatey to floral. Coffee is grown at roughly 1,300-2,000 m and nearly all of it is washed, though producers increasingly experiment with natural and honey lots. Coffee began to develop in the 1850s and 1860s alongside cochineal, and rose from about 1% of exports in 1860 to 92% of export value by 1880 after the 1871 Liberal Revolution under Justo Rufino Barrios. Traditional varieties include Bourbon, Caturra, Catuaí, Pache and Typica, with Maragogipe (a Typica mutation first found in Brazil) and Pacamara also grown, and ANACAFÉ released the rust-resistant Anacafé 14 in 2014.

History

Coffee began to develop in Guatemala in the 1850s and 1860s, initially mixed with cochineal, as poor cochineal harvests and the invention of aniline dyes weakened the dye trade. General Justo Rufino Barrios took power in the 1871 Liberal Revolution, and his Decree 170 of 1877 ended the censo enfiteusis land-use contract, after which communal, indigenous lands were widely dispossessed for coffee. Coffee went from about 1% of exports in 1860 to 92% of export value by 1880. ANACAFÉ was established in 1960 as the national coffee association.