IN QUIET HOPES OF ABSOLUTION, Guatemala

Pecan, Manuka Honey, Baked Apple

Finca Calahute sits above the town of San Pedro Necta in Huehuetenango, western Guatemala. The name means free deer. The Anzueto family took the land in the 1950s and planted it to coffee in 1952. It is now held by Alfonso Anzueto, the third generation to run it, who moved production toward separated lots. The estate covers 226 hectares, 210 of them under coffee, large for a district of small holdings.

Harvest runs from December to the end of April and draws around 120 pickers from the surrounding villages. Cherry is delivered to the family wet mill, built on the farm in 1958, where it is hand sorted, weighed, pulped and fermented for 24 to 36 hours. Parchment is washed, graded by weight in channels and dried on patio for 7 to 12 days. As it nears 11 percent moisture it is covered through the middle of the day and returned to the patio only as the sun drops.

The Maragogype plot is one of the oldest on the farm, planted around 30 years ago by Alfonso's father from seed brought out of El Salvador. The variety is a rare mutation of Typica, first identified in Bahia, Brazil in 1870, known for oversized beans and a defined, weight-driven cup. Coffee from this plot formed part of the lot that placed Calahute in the 2018 Cup of Excellence.

Shade trees are left unpruned across the estate, and three plots are given over to bees. Soil moisture and farm biodiversity are held in place. The coffee is the residue of that restraint.