How Does Guatemalan Inchet Coffee Come About? How Are Guatemalan Coffee Beans Classified?

About the Pacamara Plant

Pacamara plants are medium to tall in height with short internodal spacing. The leaves are large, corrugated and dark green, and new leaves emerge in green or brown. The trunk is hard and sturdy, with thick, strong branches.

They carry more lateral branches than Typica and are similar in habit to Pacas.

Fresh cherries show a small protrusion at the calyx disk.

The coffee beans are large and 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 Maragogipe beans.

Overall, almost all Pacamara beans sit above 17 screen size, with over 90% exceeding 18 screen size.

Pacamara offers full, rich and complex flavors. Few coffee varieties combine fruit acidity with pronounced sweetness while also showing such range: drupes, vanilla plants, tropical fruits, chocolate and sweet spices.

Manufacturer: FrontStreet Coffee | Shelf Life: 90 days | Net Weight: 100g | Packaging: Bulk | Organic: No | Bean State: Roasted | Sugar Content: Sugar-free | Origin: Guatemala | Roast Level: Medium roast

Guatemala La Libertad, Huehuetenango El Injerto Pandora de Fatima

Coffee Information

Country: Guatemala

Grade: SHB

Estate: El Injerto

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

El Injerto: A World-Class Coffee Estate

There are more than ten thousand coffee estates worldwide, ranging from operations that produce commercial coffee beans to high-quality specialty estates and those cultivating rare varieties. Today we would like to introduce El Injerto, a renowned premier coffee estate from Guatemala that has earned international acclaim.

Estate Introduction

El Injerto Estate is located in the famous Huehuetenango highlands of Guatemala. The Aguirre family has been cultivating coffee there since 1900. The estate name "Injerto" comes from a local fruit. El Injerto places special emphasis on ecological protection and organic cultivation techniques, and it applies strict quality control to ensure the quality of its green coffee beans. Through the Aguirre family's efforts, El Injerto Estate has earned Rainforest Alliance certification and has been a consistent winner in numerous international coffee competitions since 2002.

El Injerto Estate, also translated as Graft Estate, ranks among the top estates in Guatemala. If it claimed second place, probably no one would dare claim first. It has won many world-class competition awards, and that record built its current standing. Last year the estate owner further elevated the estate's status in the manner of Panama's famous Hacienda La Esmeralda. El Injerto hosts global auction competitions, and the auction lots it releases are exceptionally impressive. Notably, the first batch of "Mocha variety" in 2012 set a world record, reaching an astronomical price of $500.5 per pound, which made it a truly star estate.

For this auction, El Injerto Estate specially launched its "BEST of 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 fail to meet quality standards. Under such strict selection criteria, Pacamara varieties from El Injerto Estate account for only about 8% of total production.

About the Pacamara Variety

Pacamara gained worldwide fame through the Cup of Excellence (COE) in 2004, frequently winning championships within 2-3 years. Pacamara from Guatemala's El Injerto Estate set an astonishing record price of $80.2 per pound for green beans in 2008.

Origin of the Variety and Its Name: Pacamara is a hybrid derived from the elephant bean Maragogype and Pacas. The name "Pacamara" combines the first four letters of Maragogype and Pacas. It is an excellent coffee variety developed in El Salvador. The beans are very large, similar to elephant beans at approximately 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 a suitable region for cultivating this variety and producing excellent coffee, much as Panama treats Geisha. Pacamara's characteristics include bright fruit acidity and an exceptionally 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 belonging to the superstar category, such as Honduras' 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 Pacamal estate. All of these represent exceptional Pacamara examples, but they are all award-winning batches, which makes them very expensive.

Brewing Instructions

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

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Pacamara's appeal is that rare pairing of bright fruit acidity with deep, clean sweetness, and FrontStreet's washed single origins from Ethiopia and Kenya scratch the same itch. FrontStreet Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Gudingding Cooperative, a washed G1, shows jasmine florals, bright citrus acidity and a green tea and honey finish. If you want more fruit lift, FrontStreet Kenya Little Tomato brings cherry tomato, smoked plum, pear and black plum over a brown sugar and green tea finish, a light roast built on SL28 and SL34 grown at 1,550-1,750 meters. Both suit a filter pour-over; brew as this article recommends, 15g at 1:15 with medium grind and 88-89°C water, finishing around 2:00.