Huehuetenango in Guatemala's far northwest is one of the highest and most remote coffee-growing regions in Central America. Unusually, it's not a volcanic region — instead, it sits in the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes mountains, with a warm, dry wind from Mexico's Tehuantepec plain that protects it from frost at high altitude. This allows coffee to grow above 2,000 m.
The Cuchumatanes highlands produce winey, fruit-forward coffees with a complexity rarely found in non-volcanic terroir. Indigenous Mayan farming cooperatives here have built direct trade relationships that preserve both quality and culture.