GUATEMALA San Antonio Huista – Omni

This washed Caturra comes from the farm of Francisco López in San Antonio Huista, a municipality in Guatemala’s western highlands, near the Mexican border. The area forms part of the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes, a complex mountain range defined by steep limestone slopes and thin, mineral-rich soils. These calcareous soils, combined with high elevations and strong diurnal temperature shifts, create ideal conditions for slow, even cherry maturation.

Huehuetenango is one of the few coffee-growing regions in Guatemala not directly influenced by volcanic activity. Instead, its unique environment depends on warm, dry air masses from Mexico’s Tehuantepec plain, which rise through narrow valleys during the harvest months. This thermal inversion prevents frost at high altitudes and allows coffee to be cultivated above 1,500 meters, where cooler nights and extended maturation contribute to increased sugar density and acidity retention.

Francisco López manages a small, precisely maintained plot typical of the region’s family-run farms. Each lot is selectively handpicked, pulped, and fermented in concrete tanks for 24 to 36 hours before being washed in clean spring water and dried slowly on patios. This controlled process preserves the chemical integrity of the coffee, resulting in uniform fermentation and excellent stability for export.

In the cup, this lot presents red apple, brown sugar, and milk chocolate, with a balanced structure and refined sweetness. It exemplifies the clarity and precision for which Huehuetenango coffees are known—shaped by altitude, soil composition, and a climate that remains unlike any other in Guatemala.

Today, the coffees of San Antonio Huista represent both continuity and resilience in Guatemala’s coffee heritage. Producers like López sustain traditional washed methods while adapting to increasing climatic variability. The result is coffee that speaks not in slogans, but in the distinct mineral brightness and tactile sweetness of its origin.