Huehuetenango

Huehuetenango is Guatemala’s high country. Of the three regions not built on volcanoes, it is the highest and the driest, and hot winds blowing up from Mexico keep the frost away, so coffee grows up to about 2,000 metres. It is remote, too: most farmers process their own coffee beside the region’s countless streams. The result, Anacafé says, is a coffee with fine, intense acidity and wine notes.

The short version

• The highest and driest of Guatemala’s non-volcanic regions.
• Up to about 2,000 m, protected from frost by winds from Mexico.
• Fine, intense acidity, full body, wine notes.
• Remote: most farms run their own wet mills.
• About 8% of Guatemala’s coffee (2016).

What does Huehuetenango coffee taste like?

Anacafé describes a fine, intense acidity, a full body and pleasant wine notes. It is also one of Guatemala’s leading competition regions: between 2001 and 2015, 21% of the entries to Guatemala’s Cup of Excellence came from Huehuetenango, second only to Sacatepéquez, home of Antigua, Anacafé said.

The growing conditions

Anacafé’s profile, converted from feet, inches and °F:

	Huehuetenango
Altitude	1,520–1,980 m (5,000–6,500 ft)
Rainfall	1,220–1,420 mm (48–56 in)
Temperature	20–24 °C (68–75 °F)
Humidity	70–80%

Source: Anacafé, Guatemalan Coffees.

The secret of its altitude is the wind: dry, hot air blowing into the mountains from Mexico’s Tehuantepec plain protects the region from frost, so coffee can be grown up to about 2,000 metres, Anacafé says.

Remote coffee

Huehuetenango is so remote that producers practically have to process their own coffee, Anacafé says. Luckily, the region has an almost infinite number of rivers and streams, so a wet mill can be set up almost anywhere.

How it compares

Huehuetenango shares the top of Guatemala’s altitude range only with Acatenango, a volcanic region, by Anacafé’s figures:

Region	Highest coffee	Rainfall	Volcanic?
Huehuetenango	About 1,980 m	1,220–1,420 mm	No
Acatenango	About 1,980 m	1,220–1,830 mm	Yes
Cobán	About 1,710 m	3,050–4,060 mm	No
San Marcos	About 1,830 m	4,060–5,080 mm	Yes
Antigua	About 1,710 m	810–1,220 mm	Yes

Only Antigua, in its sheltered valley, is drier. Across Guatemala, 81% of the 2024/25 crop was graded strictly hard bean, the grade for dense, high-grown coffee, USDA reports.

How much coffee does it grow?

In 2016, Huehuetenango department grew 8% of Guatemala’s coffee on 10% of its harvested coffee area, according to the agriculture ministry, joint fourth with Chimaltenango, after San Marcos, Santa Rosa and Suchitepéquez.

Huehuetenango and other Guatemalan origins

• Coffee in Guatemala: the whole country and its eight regions.
• Antigua: the protected volcanic valley.
• San Marcos: the warmest, wettest region.