Characteristics of Guatemala Wine-Flavored Natural Process Coffee Beans and Brewing Methods

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Guatemala is a country of many volcanoes, and coffee grown in its volcanic soil produces rich specialty coffee. Guatemala's average elevation is high, which means coffee trees grow where day and night temperatures differ sharply. This demanding environment lets the cherries mature longer and more slowly on the tree. The beans are all hard beans, yet their flavors come through more completely and richly.

Characteristics

Rich aroma, excellent balance, high sweetness, with an elegant and smooth mouthfeel.

New Coffee Origin

The newly arrived beans come from a top-tier estate in Guatemala's New Oriente region: the Cardilas Estate.

Wine-Aged Natural Flavor Profile

Pineapple, muskmelon, dried apricots, candied lemon peel, Bordeaux wine, and green tea with cinnamon spice, all wrapped in rich sweetness and the full-bodied aroma of smoked plum.

Pacas is a natural mutation of Bourbon, similar to Catuerra from Brazil and Villa Sarchi from Costa Rica. Like other widely cultivated Bourbon mutations, Pacas formed through a single-gene mutation, which gives it a crucial trait: the plants can be planted more densely, ultimately yielding more per unit area.

Pacas was first discovered in 1949 by the Pacas family in the Santa Ana region of El Salvador. Fernando Alberto Pacas Figueroa found plants with different morphological characteristics on the family's Finca San Rafael estate. He began collecting seeds and selective breeding, later developing about 3/4 of a hectare of a Pacas "pioneer nursery."

By 1956, Francisco de Sola and Fernando's son, Fernando Alberto Pacas Trujillo, began studying the Pacas variety with help from Professor William Cogwill of Florida. They compared San Ramón Bourbon with an "unknown" new variety. This unknown variety showed completely different characteristics, with plant morphology distinct from Bourbon, shorter internodal spacing, and larger fruiting areas. In the end they named it "Pacas."

Guatemala is a renowned producer of high-quality Arabica in Central America. Coffee from its five volcanic regions and three non-volcanic regions is highly distinctive and enjoys an excellent reputation on the international market.

New Oriente®

Coffee in this region has been grown entirely by small-scale farmers since the 1950s. Today, every farmer in the mountainous area is a coffee production unit. The region was once Guatemala's most remote and poorest area, but it now shows vigorous life. With rainy and cloudy weather, New Oriente was an ancient volcanic region whose soil evolved from volcanic metamorphic rock, making it rich in minerals and nutritionally balanced, unlike other volcanic coffee regions.

Brewing Method

Hand-pour Guatemalan wine-aged natural coffee: 15g of beans, medium grind (small Fuji ghost-tooth grinder #4), V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89°C. First pour 30g of water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and stop. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to halfway, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225g. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio is 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Product Information

Manufacturer: FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee)
Address: No. 10 Bao'an Qian Street, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou
Manufacturer Contact: 020-38364473
Ingredients: In-house roasted
Shelf Life: 30 days
Net Content: 227g
Packaging: Bulk
Taste: Neutral
Coffee Bean State: Roasted coffee beans
Sugar Content: Sugar-free
Origin: Guatemala
Coffee Type: Other
Roast Level: Medium roast

Guatemala Plan del Guayabo Estate

Country: Guatemala
Region: New Oriente
Estate: Cardilas Estate
Grade: SHB
Processing Method: Wine-aged natural processing

Regional Characteristics

The characteristics of this producing region include fertile volcanic soil, lower humidity, abundant sunshine, and cool nights. This valley is surrounded by three volcanoes - Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango. Volcanic ash from eruptions has enriched the soil with minerals. Volcanic pumice retains moisture, compensating for the region's low rainfall, while dense shade protects the coffee from occasional frost damage.

Variety: Pacas
Elevation: 1,675 meters
Flavor: Passion fruit, strawberry sandwich cookies, blueberry

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you enjoy the fruit-forward, wine-like side of natural-process coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Cerrado is a solid, everyday-value way to drink in that direction. It is a half-natural red bourbon from the well-known Cerrado region, medium roasted, with creamy peanut, toast, caramel, and hazelnut aromas and a round body that carries a faint, gentle bitterness rather than sharp acidity. It suits pour-over, moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon, and French press.

For a sweeter, fruitier Brazilian cup, FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate comes from Mogiana, close to South Minas, where the fertile red volcanic soil gives the cherries their full aroma. The variety is a rare yellow bourbon, a natural mutation of red bourbon with a cleaner fruit character. Medium roasted, it shows a sugarcane sweetness alongside fruit and chocolate notes that other regions rarely deliver. Both are excellent value as daily beans and work just as well as a base for milk drinks.