Is Guatemala InHert Coffee Good? Brewing Methods for Guatemalan Coffee

The Coffee Estates of the World: Finca El Injerto

There are more than ten thousand coffee estates worldwide: some produce mass-market beans, some grow high-quality specialty coffee, and some cultivate rare varieties. Today I will introduce you to a renowned top-tier estate from Guatemala, Finca El Injerto.

Estate Introduction

Finca El Injerto sits on the famous Vivette Nango Plateau in Guatemala. The Aguirre family has been growing coffee there since 1900. The estate name "Injerto" comes from a local fruit. Finca El Injerto places special emphasis on ecological protection and organic cultivation, applying strict quality control to safeguard the quality of its raw 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.

Finca El Injerto (also translated as Grafted Estate) is one of Guatemala's top estates. If it claims to be second, probably no one would dare claim first. It has won many world-class competition awards, and that is what built its reputation today. Last year the estate owner pushed its standing to new heights again. Like the famous Emerald Estate in Panama, Finca El Injerto holds global bidding events, and the auction beans it offers are exceptional. Notably, its first batch of "Mocha Variety" in 2012 set a world record, selling at the sky-high price of $500.5 per pound, making it a truly deserving star estate.

For this auction, Finca El Injerto specially launched the "BEST Injerto" series, carefully selecting small batches and excellent varieties from within the estate. Experienced farmers pick ripe cherries by hand, and then cuppers eliminate any batch that fails quality standards. Under such strict screening, the Pacamara variety from Finca El Injerto accounts for only about 8% of total production.

About the Pacamara Variety

In 2004, the Cup of Excellence (COE) made Pacamara famous worldwide, and it went on to win championships frequently within 2-3 years. Pacamara produced by Guatemala's Grafted Estate set a sky-high price of $80.2 per pound of raw beans in 2008. As for the variety's origin and name: it is derived from the elephant bean Maragogype and Pacas. Taking the first 4 letters of Maragogype and Pacas forms Pacamara, an excellent coffee variety developed in El Salvador. The beans are very large, similar to elephant beans, at about 21-22 screen size. It has been an outstanding variety across Central and South America in recent years. Every country and farm hopes to find suitable areas to cultivate it and produce excellent coffee, much as Panama did with Geisha. Pacamara's characteristics include bright fruit acidity and a very pure, delicate sweetness, although its appearance still closely resembles its cousin, the elephant bean. Since 2006, COE has cupped Pacamara from 30 estates, some showing truly superstar-quality flavor, such as Honduras's 2006 champion Santa Martha, El Salvador's 2007 third-place Cerro Negro (Black Mountain Estate), Guatemala's regular COE champion estate El Injerto, and El Salvador's 2008 runner-up Pacamaral estate. All are excellent representatives of Pacamara, but because they are award-winning batches, their prices are very high.

Brewing Method

Hand-brewed Injerto: 15g of coffee, medium grind (small Fuji ghost-tooth blade setting #4), V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89C. First pour 30g of water and let it steam for 27 seconds, pour to 105g then stop, wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half before pouring again, slowly pouring until reaching 225g. Avoid the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Plant Characteristics

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

It has more lateral branches than Typica, similar to Pacas.

The fresh fruit has a small protrusion at the flower disc.

The beans are large and oval, 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% at 18 screen size or larger.

Pacamara has full, rich, and varied flavor. Few varieties combine fruit acidity with noticeable sweetness, and it shifts across stone fruit, vanilla, tropical fruit, chocolate, and spice sweetness.

Product Information

Manufacturer: Coffee Workshop
Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 100g
Packaging: Bulk
Organic Food: No
Coffee Bean State: Roasted beans
Contains Sugar: Sugar-free
Origin: Guatemala
Roast Level: Medium roast

Guatemala La Libertad, Huehuetenango El Injerto Pandora de Fatima

Country: Guatemala

Grade: SHB

Estate: Finca El Injerto

Roast Level: Medium roast

Processing Method: Washed

Variety: Pacamara

Batch: Auction batch Pandora Fatima EI07

Flavor Notes: Chestnut, Plum, Chocolate

Guatemala Pacamara Auction Batch Pandora Fatima - Pacamara PI07

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Panama lies in Central America, and its coffee-growing areas sit in the west of the country: Boquete, Volcan, Santa Clara, and Piedra de Candela. Of these, Boquete and Volcan are the specialty regions we hear about most. Both lie in Chiriqui, right in the middle of the coffee belt, with fertile volcanic soil and old-growth forest.

FrontStreet Coffee's Boquete washed Geisha comes from mountains that are often draped in cloud, humid by day and cool by night, with fertile soil from Volcan Baru, all favorable conditions for growing this outstanding coffee. The higher the trees are planted, the longer the fruit ripens and the more nutrients it takes in, and the richer and more distinctive the flavor becomes. No wonder this place is so celebrated. If you are tasting Panamanian specialty coffee for the first time, baristas suggest FrontStreet Coffee's Boquete Geisha, an estate-level entry Geisha planted at 1600 meters. Its fertile volcanic-ash soil feeds the coffee plenty of nutrients, which in turn become a rich aroma, and brewed it shows Geisha's signature jasmine, green tea, honey, citrus, and orange.

Panama Geisha is a rare wild variety and a regular champion at tasting competitions around the world. Its raw beans are slender, and the roasted bean has an unexpected fresh citrus note with a finish full of florals and fruity sweetness, a truly one-of-a-kind specialty coffee. FrontStreet Coffee's Butterfly beans carry half of that fine Geisha lineage and are made up of three varieties, Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai, planted in Boquete's Baru volcano area. The local microclimate brings abundant rainfall and a wide day-night temperature swing, and with the region's distinctive volcanic-rock soil plus careful picking and meticulous processing, this coffee performs beautifully in body, citrus acidity, and Geisha's jasmine aroma alike. It suits both pour-over and cold brew.

The celebrated Emerald Estate is both the discoverer of Geisha's flavor and the promoter of Panamanian Geisha, and the range it offers shows how much it values Geisha and how it guarantees quality. Emerald Estate began by finding beans with real flavor, then, to be precise, cupped coffee from different parts of the farm, set planting plots according to altitude, and settled on the Geisha grades we now know as Red Label, Green Label, and Blue Label. If you want the highest grade of Geisha, buy FrontStreet Coffee's Emerald Red Label: it is harvested from a single Geisha plot above 1700 meters, and its cupping score must reach 91, with a refined orange-blossom honey character.

FrontStreet Coffee's Diamond Mountain comes from a star brand under Emerald Estate, made mainly from Caturra and Catuai. The raw beans are picked from Jaramillo and Canas Verdes, two of Emerald Estate's four independent farms. The volcanic soil on these farms is ideal for coffee, and the old-growth forest gives the trees enough shade. Thanks to these exceptional conditions, the raw beans have a rich fruit aroma and sweetness, making Diamond Mountain a much-loved independent brand from Emerald Estate alongside Geisha.