A small producer inside cacao's Mesoamerican heartland, where the crop has continuous cultural use going back millennia.
Guatemala sits in the region where cacao was first processed into a drink, and Maya communities have used it continuously since. It remains part of ceremonial and everyday practice in parts of the country, prepared in ways with a direct line back to the pre-conquest drink.
Commercial production is small, concentrated in Alta Verapaz, Suchitepéquez and the Izabal region, with a speciality sector working with Criollo-descended material. Much of the crop is consumed domestically.
Grown in Alta Verapaz, Suchitepéquez, Izabal and the Petén, frequently under shade and at varying altitude.
Within the region where cacao was domesticated and first processed. Maya ceremonial and domestic use is continuous rather than revived.
A small producer, with a substantial share consumed domestically.
Often associated with nutty and spiced notes with modest acidity, in line with other Criollo-descended Mesoamerican material.
A claim about a country generalises across thousands of farms and dozens of fermentation protocols. A claim about one of these can be right. Where a region has evidence and depth of its own it has a page; where it does not, it is described here rather than given a thin one.
A Guatemalan department in the central highlands and their eastern descent, with Q'eqchi' Maya communities who have used cacao continuously rather than as a revival. Commercial production is small and much of it is consumed locally.
Humid limestone hills and valleys with cloud forest at altitude, cacao grown lower down under shade.
Often described as nutty and spiced with moderate acidity.
Covered here rather than on a page of its own
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