What Does Guatemala El Injerto Taste Like? How to Brew El Injerto Coffee

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Guatemala La Libertad, Huehuetenango El Injerto Pandora de Fatima

Country: Guatemala

Grade: SHB

Estate: El Injerto Estate

Roast Level: Medium Roast

Processing Method: Washed

Variety: Pacamara

Batch: Competition Batch Pandora de Fatima EI07

Flavor: Chestnut, Plum, Chocolate

Guatemala Pacamara Competition Batch Pandora de Fatima - Pacamara PI07

The World's Coffee Estate - El Injerto Estate

There are more than ten thousand coffee estates worldwide, among them those producing commercial coffee, those producing high-quality coffee, and those growing rare varieties. Today I want to introduce you to a renowned top-tier estate from Guatemala: El Injerto Estate.

Estate Introduction

El Injerto Estate is located on the famous Huehuetenango plateau in Guatemala, where the Aguirre family has grown coffee since 1900. The name "Injerto" comes from a local fruit. El Injerto places special emphasis on environmental protection and organic cultivation, enforcing strict quality control to safeguard the quality of its green beans. Through the Aguirre family's efforts, El Injerto Estate has earned Rainforest Alliance certification and has been a frequent winner in international coffee competitions since 2002.

El Injerto Estate, also translated as "Grafted Estate," is one of Guatemala's top estates; if it claimed second place, few would dare claim first. It has won many world-class competition awards, which brought it to its current standing. Last year the owner raised the estate's status even further. Like Panama's famous Hacienda La Esmeralda, El Injerto holds global bidding competitions, and the competition beans it releases are all exceptional. Notably, the first batch of its "Mocha variety" in 2012 set a world record, auctioning at the astronomical price of $500.5 per pound, making it a truly deserved star estate.

For this competition, El Injerto specially launched its "BEST El Injerto" series, featuring carefully selected small lots and exceptional varieties from within the estate. Experienced farmers hand-pick ripe coffee cherries, and cuppers then eliminate any lots that fail to meet quality standards. Under such strict selection, the Pacamara variety accounts for only about 8% of El Injerto's total production.

About the Pacamara Variety

Pacamara gained worldwide fame through the Cup of Excellence (COE) in 2004, frequently winning championships within two to three 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 takes its name and origin from being a cross of the Maragogype (elephant bean) and Pacas varieties, combining the first four letters of each to form Pacamara. It is an excellent coffee variety developed in El Salvador, with very large beans similar to elephant beans at roughly 21-22 screen size. It has become a standout variety in Central and South America in recent years, with every country and farm hoping to find a suitable area to cultivate it and produce excellent coffee, much as with Panama's Geisha. Pacamara coffee characteristically shows bright fruit acidity and exceptionally pure, delicate sweetness, although its appearance still closely resembles its cousin, the elephant bean. Since 2006, COE has cupped Pacamara from 30 estates, some with truly superstar-level flavors, 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 Pacamara Estate. These are all outstanding Pacamara representatives, but they are all award-winning lots, and therefore very expensive.

Brewing El Injerto

Pour-over El Injerto: 15g coffee, medium grind (No. 4 on a small Fuji ghost-tooth grinder), V60 dripper, 88-89°C water. First pour 30g of water and let it bloom for 27 seconds. Pour to 105g and stop. Once the water level in the coffee bed drops halfway, resume pouring slowly until you reach 225g. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Pacamara Plant Characteristics

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

More lateral branches than Typica, similar to Pacas.

Fresh cherries show a small protrusion at the flower disc.

The beans are large and oval, approximately 1.03 cm long, 0.71 cm wide, and 0.37 cm thick.

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

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

Pacamara offers full, rich, and complex flavors. Few coffee varieties combine fruit acidity with such distinct sweetness, with diverse notes that include stone fruits, vanilla, tropical fruits, chocolate, and sweet spices.

Product Information

Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 100g
Packaging Method: Bulk
Organic Food: No
Coffee Bean State: Roasted Beans
Sugar Content: Sugar-free
Origin: Guatemala
Roast Level: Medium Roast

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you like the honeyed, layered sweetness of a great Central American cup, FrontStreet's Boquete Geisha is an estate-level Panama Geisha grown at 1,600 meters on fertile volcanic-ash soil, giving the jasmine aroma, green tea, honey, citrus, and orange characteristic of the variety. For something with Geisha heritage but a fuller, more structured body, FrontStreet's Butterfly is grown on the slopes of Baru Volcano in Boquete and blends Geisha with Caturra and Catuai, delivering solid body, citrus acidity, and the jasmine florals of Geisha, and it is excellent for both pour-over and cold brew. And for the pinnacle, FrontStreet's Esmeralda Red Label Geisha is harvested from a single plot above 1,700 meters and must cup at 91 points, with a refined honeyed citrus profile.