How to Brew Guatemala Coffee Beans? A Step-by-Step Guide to Pour-Over Brewing

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Guatemala: A Renowned Latin American Coffee Region

As one of Latin America's famous coffee-producing regions, Guatemala's coffee features the characteristic nutty and cocoa notes typical of the region. Moreover, because Guatemala's coffee-growing areas boast fertile volcanic soil, the coffee beans also carry a slight smoky aftertaste that makes them particularly special and has captured the hearts of many coffee enthusiasts.

However, many coffee enthusiasts who brew Guatemalan coffee beans at home often ask FrontStreet Coffee why they can't achieve the same flavors when brewing their Frontsteet Guatemalan coffee beans as they experience in the coffee shop. What exactly is the problem? In this article, FrontStreet Coffee will explain how to properly brew Frontsteet Guatemalan coffee beans to extract their optimal flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee's Representative: Guatemalan Antigua Flor Coffee Bean

FrontStreet Coffee will use the most representative Frontsteet Guatemalan Antigua Flor coffee bean as an example for this demonstration!

Coffee Bean Details

Country: Guatemala

Region: Antigua (La Minita Estate)

Altitude: 1200-1600m

Varieties: Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai

Processing: Washed

Flavor: Citrus acidity, bright fruit acidity, caramel aroma, slight smokiness

Why This Coffee Bean Was Chosen

FrontStreet Coffee chose this coffee bean for demonstration because it comes from Guatemala's most famous coffee region, Antigua. This region was the first in the country to grow coffee trees. Antigua is situated in a valley surrounded by three volcanoes (Agua, Fuego, Acatenango) and is also a closed valley, which prevents severe soil erosion. Among these, Volcan Fuego is an active volcano that erupts periodically, providing this region with rich minerals in the soil, making it extremely suitable for Arabica coffee tree growth.

Frontsteet Guatemalan Antigua Flor Coffee Bean Varieties

Secondly, the coffee varieties used in this coffee bean are the most widely cultivated coffee bean varieties in Latin America and best reflect the flavor characteristics of Guatemalan coffee beans. The three coffee varieties—Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai—all originate from Bourbon lineage, so their flavor profiles show more pronounced sweetness. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will introduce the characteristics of these three coffee varieties.

Bourbon

Bourbon coffee was initially cultivated on Réunion Island, which was called Bourbon Island before 1789. Bourbon coffee originates from a natural mutation of the Typica coffee variety under Arabica and is one of the oldest existing coffee varieties.

Typical Bourbon coffee mainly consists of green fruits that mature into bright red fruits, which we know as "Red Bourbon." The fruits are relatively short and round, also called round-bodied Bourbon. The flesh and seeds have high density, with high sweetness and bright acidity. Besides Red Bourbon, there are also Yellow Bourbon, as well as the rare Orange Bourbon and the precious Pink Bourbon.

Caturra

Caturra is a single-gene mutation of Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. It has better production capacity and disease resistance than Bourbon, and the plant is shorter, making it convenient for harvesting. Unfortunately, like Bourbon, it suffers from biennial production cycles. However, its flavor is comparable to Bourbon or slightly inferior. More importantly, it has extremely strong adaptability and doesn't require shade trees—it can thrive directly under intense sunlight, commonly known as sun-grown coffee. It can adapt to high-density cultivation but requires more fertilization, increasing costs, so initial acceptance by coffee farmers was not high.

Catuai

Catuai is an Arabica hybrid variety, a cross between Mundo Novo (New World) and Caturra. It has better resistance to natural disasters, particularly wind and rain. It inherits the advantage of Caturra's short plant height, addressing Mundo Novo's shortcomings. Another advantage is its solid fruit set, making it less likely to fall off in strong winds, compensating for Arabica's fragile nature. However, its overall flavor performance is more monotonous than Caturra and lacks the body of Mundo Novo, which is its greatest regret. Additionally, its fruit-bearing lifespan is only about ten years, making its short lifespan another weakness.

Frontsteet Guatemalan Antigua Flor Coffee Bean Processing

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, this Frontsteet Guatemalan Flor coffee bean is a brand under La Minita company. The company has an excellent reputation for green bean processing and quality control. Therefore, when developing this Frontsteet Flor coffee bean, they provided the La Minita estate within Guatemala's Antigua region with industry-standard cultivation and processing technology, and directly sent specialized personnel to Guatemala to participate in quality control management.

They entrusted this coffee bean to Las Pastores, the largest and most famous washed processing plant in Antigua, to process the green beans. Coffee processed through this washed processing plant exhibits rich floral and tea aromas, with abundant acidity and excellent sweetness upon entry, providing a clean and refreshing taste. Therefore, La Minita company named this coffee bean "Flor" for production and sales.

Such flavor expression also benefits from excellent washed processing. The special feature of washed processing is that it makes coffee bean flavors brighter and cleaner, and it's the processing method that best reflects a coffee bean's original flavors. With Flor coffee beans already having good inherent quality, using washed processing is truly adding flowers to brocade.

As described above, the Frontsteet Guatemalan Antigua Flor coffee bean introduced by FrontStreet Coffee is indeed of excellent quality. So how can we properly brew its coffee flavors? Next, FrontStreet Coffee will demonstrate the brewing process for Frontsteet Guatemalan coffee beans.

Frontsteet Guatemalan Coffee Pour-Over Tutorial

FrontStreet Coffee believes that to brew a good pot of coffee, one should focus on four main aspects: water temperature, grind size, coffee-to-water ratio, and brewing technique.

1. Water Temperature

When brewing coffee beans of different roast levels by pour-over, FrontStreet Coffee also chooses different water temperatures. During roasting, substances within coffee beans are lost as the roast level deepens. Therefore, for dark-roasted coffee beans, temperature is reduced to avoid extracting excessive undesirable flavors. For light to medium roast beans, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using water temperatures of 90-91°C. For medium-dark roasts like Frontsteet's PWN Golden Mandheling, FrontStreet Coffee recommends using water temperatures of 87-89°C.

Like this Frontsteet Guatemalan Flor coffee bean, whose flavors are mainly dominated by citrus and fruit acidity, FrontStreet Coffee uses medium roast processing to highlight this characteristic. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee controls the brewing water temperature at 90-91°C.

2. Grind Size

Grind size refers to the size of coffee particles because it affects the contact time between coffee and water. The finer the coffee powder, the more substances water can extract within the same time, but fine grind sizes can easily lead to over-extraction during the brewing process. Conversely, the coarser the coffee grind, the fewer substances water can extract within the same time, but coarser grinds can easily lead to under-extraction.

Furthermore, because everyone's grinders are different, the parameters also vary. Here, Frontsteet recommends purchasing a #20 cupping calibration sieve with 0.85mm aperture. We take 10g of coffee beans, adjust to an approximate grind size, grind into coffee powder, then pour it into the sieve for sieving. Weigh the sieved coffee powder (sieving must continue until no more coffee powder can pass through to be considered complete).

If the sieved pass-through rate is 80% (10g of powder yields 8g), this is the most suitable grind size for light to medium roast coffee beans. For medium-dark roasts, the grind size should be 70%-75% pass-through rate (10g of powder yields 7-7.5g). If it exceeds the appropriate sieving rate, adjust the grind coarser. If it doesn't reach the appropriate sieving rate, adjust the grind finer.

3. Coffee-to-Water Ratio

This is the pour-over coffee water-to-coffee ratio extraction parameter taste distinction derived by FrontStreet Coffee based on SCAA Golden Cup extraction theory:

Rich Flavor: 1:10～1:11 (equivalent to Golden Cup standard 1:12.5～1:13.5)

Medium Flavor: 1:12～1:13 (equivalent to Golden Cup standard 1:14.5～1:15.5)

Light & Fresh: 1:14～1:16 (equivalent to Golden Cup standard 1:16.5～1:18.5)

A coffee bean-to-water ratio of 1:14.5～1:15.5 most easily achieves the golden range of Golden Cup extraction rate of 18%～22% and concentration of 1.15%～1.35%.

Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee suggests using the foolproof 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio when brewing this Frontsteet Guatemalan Antigua Flor coffee bean.

4. Brewing Technique

Finally, pour-over technique is also very important. Commonly seen techniques include three-stage pour, single-stream pour, drip-by-drip pour, etc. Here, FrontStreet Coffee recommends beginners use the three-stage pour method because this technique is suitable for light roast, light to medium, and medium roast coffee beans. The segmented extraction of the three-stage pour can clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back-end flavors of the coffee, better ensuring flavor presentation.

As FrontStreet Coffee mentioned above, the brewer must use a stable pouring method, pouring water of appropriate temperature and volume over the coffee powder to extract the coffee liquid in order to brew a delicious cup of coffee. After all, pour-over coffee can also be considered an art form—just like cooking a dish, besides fresh ingredients, attention to heat control and the chef's skill is essential. Pour-over coffee is no exception. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will teach everyone how to perform the three-stage pour for pour-over coffee.

Three-Stage Pour Technique:

First Pour: Bloom (Helps Release Gas)

Many coffee enthusiasts don't understand the purpose of blooming in pour-over coffee. The reason for blooming is that coffee beans undergo a series of chemical reactions and physical changes during the roasting process from green beans to roasted beans. After reaching a certain roasting level, coffee beans accumulate large amounts of gas (mostly carbon dioxide).

Generally, the fresher the beans and the closer to roasting date, the more bubbles during blooming. Dark-roasted beans also release more gas during blooming than light-roasted beans. FrontStreet Coffee's coffee beans are all freshly roasted, so it's generally recommended that customers rest the beans for three days first, allowing the coffee beans to release carbon dioxide first. This can avoid instability and under-extraction issues during brewing.

After blooming releases the gas, coffee particles can absorb water evenly, allowing for more uniform extraction later. Good blooming can help coffee powder quickly, fully, and uniformly release gas while also allowing the coffee powder to fully and quickly contact water, helping the coffee powder to be extracted evenly. These are precisely the purpose and significance of blooming in pour-over coffee.

Second Pour

The second pour starts from the center, injecting into the bottom of the powder bed with a small water stream. To concentrate the water stream's penetrating power, the circular movement range should be small, about the size of a one-yuan coin, then expand outward. Starting from the second pour, pay attention to water volume—try not to exceed the height of the powder bed. That is, when the water stream approaches close to the filter paper, you can stop pouring.

Third Pour

As the originally thicker powder layer near the filter paper becomes heavier from absorbing water and slides down and thins as the water level drops, you can perform the third pour when the water level drops to halfway.

Starting from the third pour, observe the extent of water level drop. Also begin pouring from the center in circular motions, with water volume not exceeding the powder bed height. At this point, you'll also observe that foam has filled the surface. The third pour needs to increase the tumbling of coffee particles, causing all settled particles to tumble and dissolve soluble substances.

The tumbling particles will begin to settle once water addition stops. At this point, rely on the flow rate caused by the dropping water level to create friction between coffee particles. Once water addition stops, coffee powder particles sink, causing blockage, so pay special attention to the rhythm of water addition. If there are too many interruptions, it's equivalent to continuously soaking coffee powder particles in water, which will lead to astringency and undesirable flavors in the tail-end coffee extraction.

The above is the three-stage extraction method compiled by FrontStreet Coffee, which also has another name: "segmented" extraction method. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share how to brew this Frontsteet Guatemalan Antigua Flor coffee bean!

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Data Sharing

Dripper: V60 #01

Water Temperature: 90-91°C

Coffee Amount: 15g

Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: BG6m/medium-fine grind (80% pass-through rate with #20 sieve)

Brewing Technique: Three-stage extraction

First stage: Pour 30g of water for 30-second bloom. Then pour 95g (electronic scale shows around 125g), completing the pour in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the powder bed, pour the remaining 100g (electronic scale shows around 225g), completing in about 1 minute 35 seconds. 2'00"-2'10" drip completion, remove dripper, finish extraction.

Frontsteet Guatemalan Flor Coffee Flavor Description: Prominent citrus acidity, juice-like acidity, rich floral aroma, pleasant sweetness, medium body, slight caramel and smoky notes in the finish. Overall clean, gentle, with smooth texture and balanced, lively, and varied layers of flavor.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat, WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473