Description
COUNTRY Guatemala
DEPARTMENT Huehuetenango
MUNICIPALITY San Pedro Necta
ALTITUDE 1,300m-1,500 above sea level
VARIETY Bourbon, Caturra
OWNER Alfonso Anzueto
AWARDS Cup of Excellence 2018 (19th Place)
Sweet and clean, with a creamy mouthfeel. Milk chocolate, stewed apple and honeydew melon, with hazelnut on the finish.
Calahute is owned by the Anzueto family, who purchased the farm in the 1950s. Today, it is managed by third-generation coffee producer Alfonso Anzueto, who inherited the farm from his father.
Calahute (which translates to “Free Deer”) is located in Huehuetenango, a stunning region located in the west of Guatemala near the border of Mexico. To reach the estate, a steep road ascends the side of El Tapón Mountain in Huehuetenango and eventually rises to the town of San Pedro Necta. The verdant hills surrounding the town centre are home to many independent farmers, who grow coffee as their primary source of income.
The estate is relatively large for this region (most of the producers in San Pedro Necta have very small farms), with 210 hectares dedicated to coffee. A number of different varieties are grown on the estate, including Bourbon, Catuai, Caturra, Pacamara, Tekisik and Typica. This lot is made up of Bourbon and Caturra.
The farm sits at an elevation of 1,300–1,500m above sea level, with an average temperature of 18–25°C, and an annual rainfall of 1,300–1,800mm. The coffee grows under the shade of Ingas and Grevillea trees which protect the coffee trees from the sun and provide valuable organic material, keeping the soil moist and well-nourished.
ABOUT HUEHUETENANGO
Huehuetenango (or HueHue as it is often called) is a stunning region located in the west of Guatemala near the border of Mexico. HueHue is known for its vast ethnic diversity and Cuchumatanes mountain range, the highest non-volcanic mountain range in all of Central America. It is also home to some of the most complex and celebrated coffees in the country, which frequently appear in the top ten of the Cup of Excellence competition. This is in part due to the incredibly high elevations that coffee is able to grow at (up to 2,000m above sea level), thanks to the dry, hot winds that blow into the mountains from Mexico’s Tehuantepec plain and protect the region from frost. These high elevations combined with a relatively predictable climate make for exceptional quality coffee, like this very special lot from Calahute.
HOW THIS COFFEE WAS PROCESSED
Harvest time at Calahute beings in December and concludes at the end of April. Around 100 people from the surrounding villages are employed during this time, which helps sustain the local economy. These seasonal workers are trained in best-picking techniques and select only the perfectly ripe cherries. All operations at the farm are overseen by Alfonso and his manager Ricardo Arturo Sandoval Godoy, who has worked with the Anzueto family for 19 years.
This coffee was processed using the washed method at the family’s wet mill, which is located on the farm. At the end of the day, each of the workers delivers their carefully selected coffees to the mill, where they are hand-sorted before being weighed, pulped and fermented for 24–36 hours. The beans are then washed, graded by weight in long channels, and carefully dried on patios for 7 -12 days.
WHY WE LOVE IT
Historically, not many micro-lots have been produced at Calahute, however, since taking over the farm Alfonso has invested more resources and efforts into lot separation, experimentation, processing and quality control, hoping to improve the quality and diversity of offerings from his farm. His dream is to become a leader in quality in the region and from the results he is already achieving, he is well on the way to succeeding at this.
