Guatemala Huehuetenango Pache Coffee

A Pache from Huehuetenango, a compact natural mutation of Typica first noticed in Guatemala. The cup has layered stone fruit and cocoa with hazelnut and caramel, and a silky body.

Origin & Story

Pache is a coffee tree that turned up by chance. It is a natural mutation of Typica, one of the oldest coffee varieties, and it was first noticed in Guatemala, on farms such as El Brito in Santa Rosa. Instead of a tall, spindly tree, the mutation was compact, like Caturra and Pacas, which made it easier to harvest and to plant close together.

That small stature helped it spread through Guatemala's coffee farms, and you will find Pache on many of them today. Anacafé's eight-region map calls this part of the country Highland Huehue, where the Cuchumatanes climb above 3,800 meters and coffee grows as high as 2,000.

At that height frost is a danger, but the region has protection. Warm air from the Tehuantepec plains in Mexico meets cool air coming off the mountains, and the mixing keeps frost in check and gives the cherries a long, slow ripening.

In the cup, expect stone fruit and cocoa first, then hazelnut and a caramel finish, all in a silky body. The recipe here uses a Chemex at 93°C, whose thick paper filter gives a clean cup and lets the layers of fruit and sugar come through.

Reading the Flavor Profile

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