San Jacinto, Guatemala

Since 2016, George Howell Coffee has sourced coffee from San Jacinto, a small mountain community perched high in the western highlands of Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Home to the Mayan Mam people, San Jacinto is a place where steep slopes touch the clouds and life follows the contours of the land. The community sits between 5,600 and 6,200 feet above sea level, where cool air and soft, filtered light nurture the coffee trees, lightly shaded with nitrogen-producing trees above. Here, three members of the Pérez Sánchez family—Jacinto, Francisco, and Rudy—devote themselves to cultivating coffee with care rooted in tradition and the rhythms of nature. The Pérez family grows primarily Bourbon, along with smaller plots of Caturra and Pache—classic Huehuetenango varieties prized for their sweetness and clarity—plus a smattering of disease-resistant Catimor. At this altitude, the harvest comes late. Picking begins in late February and continues through April. Families move through the trees, hand