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Honduras Coffee Origin Guide: Regions, History & Flavor Profile

Although it is the largest producer of coffee in Central America, Honduras was a bit of a late bloomer in coffee production compared to its neighbors. Coffee first arrived to the country likely in the 18th century and by the late 19th century production increases to eventually make up 80% of export by the early 1900s. Now, it is consistently in the top 10 in terms of production volume, and produced 5.52 million 60kg bags in 2024, making up 3.2% of the world's global production. Washed coffee makes up most of the processing type from the country, but a small number of producers offer natural processes, along with anaerobic and other types of processing. Flavors from Honduran coffee are often nutty, with some fruit characteristics and mild acidity. Large estates make up a good chunk of the production volume, and the country began differentiating their coffee via certifications in 2009. Over 50% of its 2024 crop was certified coffee, mostly through UTZ (now merged with Rainforest Alliance), Organic, FTO, and Rainforest Alliance. 

History

History

While the 18th century exports from Central America were largely dominated by sugarcane, indigo, and cochenal (a short-lived insect-derived dye), Spanish Jesuits cultivated coffee in Antigua prior to 1767, and perhaps as early as 1730. 

Indigo was one of the main crops until 1856, when synthetic dyes became prominent in Central America. It was then that Guatemala turned to coffee to as another source of income. In 1845, there was a push to disperse educational materials for coffee producers and help establish pricing and quality levels. In the 1870’s, the government distributed around one million coffee seeds in an effort to further stimulate the industry.  

In 1871 when Justo Rufino Barrios came to power, he pushed for coffee to become the backbone of the economy, sacrificing indigenous land to do so. He sold 400,000 hectares of public land for coffee production. This led to a 30-year long civil war, promoted by poverty, land distribution, hunger, and racism towards indigenous people. 

 In 1954, the democratically elected president Jacobo Árbenz was ousted in a U.S.-orchestrated coup. Árbenz’s progressive policies included labor and land reforms that were unpopular with the established elite. While Árbenz’s attempts to reclaim Guatemala for the working class were popular with the smallholder farmers of the day, his administration eventually fell to aggressive anti-communist factions, fueled by the interests of wealthy European descendants and the U.S. government. Shortly thereafter, the country descended into a civil war that lasted until 1996, costing more than 200,000 lives and creating the conditions for paramilitary groups and urban gang violence. 

Ongoing bloodshed and disillusionment with government corruption in Guatemala are stressors sufficient to drive emigration, regardless of the value of a pound of coffee. Add punitive socio-economic policies like sanctions and extortionary loan repayment policies from global superpowers like the U.S., and farmers are faced with a thoroughly unsustainable system for survival. 

After the coffee price crisis in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and in the wake of a devastating coffee leaf rust outbreak in 2012-13, many producers in Guatemala turned to avocados and macadamia nuts to make money.  Despite the challenges, Guatemala still contributes a substantial amount of coffee to the world, ranking 11th in production volume in 2025 with approximately 3.5 million 60kg bags produced. 

guatemala coffee growing regions

Regions

Coffee growing regions are very distinguished in Guatemala. Antigua is a well known coffee production region in Guatemala. In the 2000s there was an issue of fraudulent Antigua coffee that spurred a Denomination of Origin under the name ‘Genuine Antigua Coffee”. Huehuetenango also know as Huehue is also a well-known region and translated from Nahautl as ‘place of the ancients’ or ‘place of the ancestors’. This area has the highest non-volcanic mountains in Central America that are well-suited to coffee growing . Traceability from regions is relatively easy to obtain because many producers have their own wet mills and process their own coffee. This means you can trace coffee back to the co-op or producer group that grew the coffee. 

Anacafe, the country’s private national regulator and promoter of coffees, heavily markets different growing regions, including “Highland” Huehuetenango, “Volcanic” San Marcos, “Traditional” Atitlan, Acetenango Valley, Fraijanes Plateau, “Rainforest” Coban, New Oriente, and of course, Genuine Antigua Coffee. 

Guatemala grades coffee by altitude and ranges from Prime (750-900m), Extra Prime(900-1050m), Semi Hard Bean(1050-1220m), Hard Bean(1220m-1300m) and Strictly Hard Bean (1300m+). European prep (size 15 and above, maximum of 8 defects within 300gr) and American prep (screen size 13 and above with 23 defects within 300gr) is used to denote size grading.  

Cultivars

Cultivars

Cultivars common to the region include Catimors and Sarchimors, Bourbon, Catuai, Caturra and Pache. Catuai was originally developed in Brazil in the 1970’s, eventually spreading to Central America countries like Honduras and Costa Rica.. When it was introduced in Guatemala in 1970 it spread widely and quickly and now makes up 20% of the Arabica production. Caturra, a natural mutation of the Bourbon cultivar, was discovered around 1915, also in Brazil. By the 1940’s it was brought to Guatemala but its cultivation took longer to be widely adopted, approximately three decades. From Guatemala, it spread to other Central American countries like Costa Rica and Honduras. Pache it a natural mutation of typica and was discovered in 1949 in Santa Rosa, Guatemala. Once it was discovered, it was selected and stabilized so that seeds could be distributed to other regions and countries.  

 In the early 1980s, in southeastern Chiquimula, Guatemala, near the country’s border with Honduras, a farmer named Francisco Manchamé observed something strange on his farm. Catimors growing alongside Pacamara plants created a new spontaneous hybrid. Manchamé, and later Anacafé, would undertake an intensive “selection” process, where many plants are bred en masse and then the best of the seedlings are chosen for desired characteristics. Finally, in 2014, Anacafé began distributing their improved Catimor-Pacamara hybrid called (unimaginatively) Anacafé-14.