Characteristics of Guatemala El Injerto Beans and How to Drink Guatemala El Injerto Coffee

Guatemala La Libertad, Huehuetenango El Injerto Pandora de Fatima

Country: Guatemala

Grade: SHB

Estate: El Injerto

Roast Level: Medium Roast

Processing Method: Washed

Variety: Pacamara

Batch: Competition Batch Pandora de Fatima EI07

Flavor Notes: Chestnut, Plum, Chocolate

Guatemala Pacamara - Competition Batch Pandora de Fatima - Pacamara EI07

A World-Class Coffee Estate - El Injerto

There are over ten thousand coffee estates worldwide, ranging from those producing commercial coffee to high-quality estates and even those cultivating rare varieties. Today, let me introduce you to the renowned top-tier coffee estate from Guatemala - El Injerto.

Estate Introduction

El Injerto Estate is located on the famous Huehuetenango highlands in Guatemala. The Aguirre family has cultivated coffee there since 1900. The estate name "Injerto" comes from a local fruit name. El Injerto Estate places special emphasis on environmental protection and organic cultivation techniques, with strict quality control to ensure the quality of its green coffee beans. Through the efforts of the Aguirre family, El Injerto has also earned Rainforest Alliance certification and has been a frequent champion in many international coffee competitions since 2002.

El Injerto Estate (also translated as Grafting Estate) is one of the top estates in Guatemala. If it claims to be second, probably no one would dare claim first. It has won many world-class competition awards, which led to its standing today. Last year, the estate owner further elevated the estate's status: like Panama's famous Hacienda La Esmeralda, El Injerto Estate holds global bidding events, and the competition beans it offers are exceptional. Notably, the first batch of "Mocha variety" in 2012 set a world record, reaching an astronomical price of $500.5 per pound, making it a truly deserving star estate.

For this competition, El Injerto Estate specially launched the "BEST El Injerto" series, featuring carefully selected small batches and coffee varieties of exceptional quality from within the estate. Experienced farmers hand-pick ripe coffee cherries, after which cuppers eliminate batches that don't meet quality standards. Under such strict selection criteria, Pacamara varieties from El Injerto account for only about 8% of total production.

Hand-pour El Injerto: 15g of coffee, medium grind (using Fujiyama ghost tooth grinder #4), V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89°C. First pour 30g of water, bloom for 27 seconds. Pour to 105g and stop. Wait until the water level drops to half, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225g. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

About the Pacamara Variety

Pacamara gained worldwide fame through the Cup of Excellence (COE) in 2004, frequently winning championships within 2-3 years. Pacamara produced by Guatemala's El Injerto Estate set a record price of $80.2 per pound for green beans in 2008. The variety's origin and name come from Maragogype (Elephant Bean) and Pacas derivatives, taking the first 4 letters of Maragogype and Pacas to form Pacamara. It is an excellent coffee variety developed in El Salvador. The coffee beans are very large, similar to Elephant Beans, about 21-22 screen size. It has been an outstanding coffee variety in Central and South America in recent years. Every country or farm hopes to find suitable areas for growing this variety to produce excellent coffee, like Panama's Geisha. The characteristics of Pacamara include bright fruit acidity and very pure, delicate sweetness. Although Pacamara's appearance is quite similar to its cousin, the Elephant Bean variety, since 2006 COE has cupped Pacamara from 30 estates, with some flavors truly superstar-level - such as Honduras's 2006 champion Santa Martha, El Salvador's 2007 third-place Cerro Negro (Black Mountain Estate), Guatemala's regular COE champion El Injerto, and El Salvador's 2008 runner-up Pacamaral Estate. Historically these are all excellent Pacamara representatives, but they are all award-winning batches, making them very expensive.

Pacamara plants are medium to tall with short internodes, large, corrugated, dark green leaves, with new leaves appearing green or brown. The trunk is hard and sturdy, with thick, wide branches.

More lateral branches than Typica, similar to Pacas

The cherry has a small protrusion at the floral disc position.

The coffee beans are large, oval-shaped, approximately 1.03 cm in length, 0.71 cm in width, and 0.37 cm in thickness.

Depending on altitude, Pacamara beans are about 70% the size of Maragogype beans.

Overall, almost all Pacamara beans are above 17 screen size, with over 90% being 18 screen size or larger.

Pacamara offers full, rich, and complex flavors. Few coffee varieties have both fruit acidity and noticeable sweetness, with diverse changes including stone fruits, herbal vanilla, tropical fruits, chocolate, and spiced sweetness.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

El Injerto's washed character - clean, sweet, and structured - is a good reason to explore FrontStreet Coffee's washed lineup. The washed method itself is a traditional way of processing coffee with water: flotation, removing the pulp, fermenting in water to break down the mucilage, rinsing or soaking again, drying, and finally hulling. Because the beans spend a long time in water, they lose much of their simple sugar while gaining organic acids, so washed coffee tends to keep more of the bean's own aroma and shows bright acidity and a clean, fresh cup.

FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe Gudingding cooperative coffee is a strong example: smallholder farmers deliver their cherries to the cooperative for centralized processing, and the washed method lets jasmine and bright citrus acidity come through at their clearest. FrontStreet Coffee roasts it medium-light, so the cup also carries green tea and honey notes, and it suits pour-over, cold brew, and espresso alike. If you want a more intense washed cup, FrontStreet Coffee's Kenya Small Tomato is a leading representative of the style: Kenya's double-wash technique repeats the washing and soaking to push the juice-like quality to the extreme, giving cherry tomato, dried plum, pear, black plum, and brown sugar aromas with a sweet-tart, juicy body.

For the smooth, balanced side of washed coffee, FrontStreet Coffee's Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 keeps the aroma rich and the cup even, with hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel notes and no single flavor dominating. Just as with the El Injerto Pacamara, roast level and processing are what let these washed coffees show their clean, transparent structure.