Guatemala Inhet Coffee Brands and Brewing Steps

About the Pacamara Variety

Pacamara won worldwide fame at the 2004 Cup of Excellence (COE), then went on to take the top spot again and again within the next two or three years. In 2008, Pacamara from Guatemala's El Injerto Estate set a record price of $80.2 per pound for green beans.

On the variety's origin and name: it is a hybrid of the Elephant Bean (Maragogype) and Pacas, and "Pacamara" simply stitches together the first four letters of each parent. It is an excellent variety developed in El Salvador. The beans are very large, like Elephant Beans, at roughly 21-22 screen size, and it has been one of Central and South America's standout varieties in recent years. Every country and farm hopes to find the right site to grow it, much as they do for Panama's Geisha. Pacamara's hallmarks are bright fruit acidity and an exceptionally pure, delicate sweetness.

Pacamara looks very much like its cousin, the Elephant Bean. Since 2006 the COE has cupped Pacamara from thirty estates, and some of those cups have been truly stellar: Honduras' 2006 champion Santa Martha, El Salvador's 2007 third-place Cerro Negro (Black Mountain Estate), Guatemala's regular COE winner El Injerto, and El Salvador's 2008 runner-up Pacamara Estate. All are outstanding representatives of the variety — and all are award-winning lots, which makes them very expensive.

Pour-over Brewing Parameters

Pour-over Injerto: 15g of coffee grounds, medium grind size (Fuji Royal's ghost-tooth grinder #4), V60 dripper, water at 88-89°C. First pour 30g of water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and pause. Wait until the water level drops halfway before pouring again. Continue slowly until you reach 225g in total. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Botanical Characteristics

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

The plants carry more lateral branches than Typica, much like Pacas.

The fresh cherries show a small protrusion at the calyx.

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

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

All told, almost every Pacamara bean sits above 17 screen size, and more than 90% are 18 screen size or larger.

Flavor Profile

Pacamara delivers a full, rich, and complex cup. Few varieties combine fruit acidity with such distinct sweetness, and it layers in notes of stone fruit, vanilla-like plants, tropical fruit, chocolate, and sweet spice.

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 Huehuetenango Pacamara Competition Batch Pandora de Fatima Pacamara PI07

World's Coffee Estate—El Injerto Estate

There are more than ten thousand coffee estates worldwide, ranging from those producing mass-market beans to those growing rare varieties. Today we introduce a renowned top-tier estate from Guatemala: El Injerto.

Estate Introduction

El Injerto Estate sits in Guatemala's celebrated Huehuetenango highlands. The Aguirre family has farmed coffee there since 1900. The estate's name, "Injerto," comes from a local fruit. El Injerto places special emphasis on ecological protection and organic farming, with strict quality control to safeguard the quality of its green beans. Through the Aguirre family's efforts, the estate has earned Rainforest Alliance certification and has been a frequent winner in international coffee competitions since 2002.

El Injerto (also translated as Grafting Estate) ranks among Guatemala's very best estates; if it claims second place, few would dare claim first. It has taken home many world-class competition awards on the strength of its achievements, and last year the owner lifted the estate's standing even higher. Like Panama's famous La Esmeralda Estate, El Injerto runs global bidding events, and its competition lots are exceptional. Notably, its first batch of Mocha variety in 2012 set a world record, selling for the astronomical price of $500.5 per pound — a well-deserved star estate.

For this competition, El Injerto specially launched the "BEST El Injerto" series, hand-selecting small, high-quality batches and varieties from within the estate. Experienced farmers pick ripe cherries with great care, after which cuppers screen out any batch that fails to meet the standard. Under such strict selection, Pacamara from El Injerto accounts for only about 8% of total production.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Rare large-bean varieties like Pacamara have a natural cousin in the coffee world's most celebrated rarity: Geisha. If Pacamara caught your attention, FrontStreet Coffee's Geisha lineup is the next step. The Panama Boquete Geisha is the friendly entry point, delivering the classic Panama combination of orange blossom and honeyed sweetness, an oolong-tea texture, and fine, layered fruit acidity. For the full experience, the Hacienda La Esmeralda Red Label — Esmeralda Special — is grown at 1,600-1,800 meters, must cup above 90 points, and is bottled as single-plot lots, while the Green Label blends several plots to show the estate's signature high-altitude profile at a more accessible price.

Ethiopia, where coffee began, offers its own Geisha heritage through the Geisha Village estate, which grows three Geisha varieties — Gori Gesha, Gesha 1931, and Illubabor Forest — and grades them into Gold Label RARITIES, Red Label GROWERS RESERVE, Green Label SINGLE-TERROIR, and Chaka lots. The Gold Label is a Gesha 1931 making up about 10% of production and is processed with a refined natural method for a complex, lingering cup. For a more affordable taste of the Geisha character, FrontStreet's Grana Gesha from the Yirgacheffe area is light-medium roasted and shows bright citrus acidity, elegant ginger-flower aromatics, and the ripe-fruit sweetness typical of the variety.

Geisha repays careful brewing. FrontStreet Coffee suggests a grind size passing about 78% through a Chinese standard No. 20 sieve — roughly fine sugar — and water at 91°C, since the dense beans tend to sink and clog the dripper. A 15g dose in a small Hario V60 with a 1:16 ratio is a reliable starting point: pour to 30g for a 30-second bloom, then a slow circling pour to 125g, wait for the bed to drop halfway, and finish at 225g, for a total extraction of about 2:10 to 2:20.