Injerto Estate Single Origin Coffee Beans Introduction Growing Information Varieties Awards

Farm Introduction

Finca El Injerto sits in Guatemala's celebrated Huehuetenango highlands. The Aguirre family has grown coffee there since 1900, and the farm takes its name from a local fruit. El Injerto places special emphasis on ecological protection and organic cultivation, enforcing strict quality control to safeguard green bean quality. Through the Aguirre family's efforts, the farm has earned Rainforest Alliance certification, and since 2002 it has been a frequent winner in international coffee competitions.

El Injerto (sometimes rendered "Grafting Farm") is one of Guatemala's very top farms - if it claims second place, hardly anyone dares claim first! Its shelf of world-class competition awards tells the story. More recently, the farm's owner elevated its standing further: like Panama's famed Esmeralda Estate, El Injerto now runs its own global green bean auction, and the auction lots are uniformly spectacular. The first "Mocha Variety" batch in 2012 set a world record, selling at the astronomical price of $500.5 per pound - a star farm in every sense.

For its auctions, El Injerto created the "BEST El Injerto" series, drawing small batches of exceptional quality and variety from within the farm. Experienced pickers select only ripe cherries, and cuppers then eliminate any batch that falls below standard. Under screening this strict, the Pacamara variety accounts for only about 8% of the farm's total production.

About the Pacamara Variety

Pacamara shot to worldwide fame at the 2004 Cup of Excellence (COE) and took championships almost every year for the next 2-3. Pacamara from Guatemala's El Injerto set a green bean record price of $80.2 per pound in 2008. The variety's name is a portmanteau: the first four letters of Maragogype (the "elephant bean") and Pacas, two varieties crossed to create it in El Salvador. The beans are very large - like elephant beans - about 21-22 screen size, and Pacamara has been a standout Central and South American variety in recent years. Every country and farm wants to find the right ground to grow it into something exceptional, much as Panama did with Geisha. Pacamara's hallmarks are bright fruit acidity and remarkably pure, delicate sweetness, and its flavors are diverse: stone fruits, vanilla, tropical fruits, chocolate, and sweet spices. Its appearance still closely resembles its elephant-bean parent. Since 2006, COE has cupped Pacamara from 30 farms, some truly superstar lots among them - the 2006 Honduras champion Santa Martha, the 2007 El Salvador third-place Cerro Negro (Black Mountain Farm), Guatemala's perennial COE champion El Injerto, and the 2008 El Salvador runner-up Pacamaral. All are outstanding Pacamara representatives, but because these are award-winning lots, prices run steep.

The Pacamara plant is medium to tall, with short internodes; large, wavy, dark green leaves; and new leaves that are green or brown. The trunk is hard and thick, with wide, strong branches.

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

The cherries show a small protrusion at the flower disc.

The beans are large and oval, about 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.

Overall, nearly all Pacamara beans are above screen size 17, and over 90% are screen size 18 or above.

Pacamara's flavors are full-bodied, rich, and complex. Few varieties combine bright fruit acidity with noticeable sweetness and such variety: stone fruits, vanilla, tropical fruits, chocolate, and sweet spices.

Manufacturer: Coffee Workshop, Address: No. 10 Bao'an Front Street, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou City, Manufacturer Contact: 020-38364473, Shelf Life: 90 days, Net Content: 100g, Packaging: Bulk, Organic Food: No, Coffee Bean State: Roasted Beans, Sugar Content: Sugar-free, Origin: Guatemala, Roast Level: Medium Roast

Guatemala La Libertad, Huehuetenango El Injerto Pandora de Fatima

Coffee Details

Country: Guatemala

Grade: SHB

Farm: El Injerto Farm

Roast Level: Medium Roast

Processing Method: Washed

Variety: Pacamara

Batch: Bidding Batch Pandora Fatima EI07

Flavor: Chestnut, Plum, Chocolate

Brewing Method

Pour-over El Injerto. 15g of grounds, medium grind (small Fuji ghost-tooth grinder 4), V60 dripper, 88-89°C water temperature. First pour 30g of water, blooming for 27 seconds. Pour to 105g and stop. Once the water level in the coffee bed drops to half, continue pouring slowly to 225g. Skip the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Guatemala Pacamara Bidding Batch Pandora Fatima - Pacamara PI07

A World-Class Coffee Farm - El Injerto Farm

There are tens of thousands of coffee farms worldwide - commodity producers, quality-focused estates, and growers of rare varieties alike. Today we introduce one of the most renowned: Guatemala's El Injerto Farm.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If El Injerto's story has you dreaming of Central American highlands, FrontStreet Coffee's Boquete Washed Geisha is an excellent place to start in Panama - the other great Central American origin. Boquete sits in the mountains of Chiriqui province, where frequent cloud cover keeps days humid and nights cool, and the volcanic soil from the Baru volcano feeds the trees everything they need. This is an estate-level entry Geisha grown at 1,600 meters: the rich volcanic soils build a fragrant, aromatic cup, and after brewing you'll find the jasmine florals, green tea, honey, citrus, and orange that only Geisha delivers.

For a taste of Geisha character at a gentler price, FrontStreet Coffee's Panama Washed Butterfly carries half Geisha's pedigree - a blend of Geisha, Caturra, and Catuai planted on the Baru volcanic slopes of Boquete. Panama's special microclimate brings abundant rain and a wide day-night temperature swing, and the region's volcanic-rock soils plus meticulous harvesting and processing make this coffee excel across the board: full body, fine citrus acidity, and genuine Geisha jasmine aroma. It suits both pour-over and cold brew.

And for the very top shelf, FrontStreet Coffee offers the Esmeralda Estate Red Label Geisha - the highest tier of the estate that discovered and popularized Geisha worldwide. Esmeralda cups coffee from each of its plots and assigns the Red, Green, and Blue labels by quality; the Red Label is harvested from a single Geisha plot above 1,700 meters and must cup at 91 points or higher, delivering exquisite orange-blossom and honeyed notes. Between Guatemala's auction legends and Panama's Geisha estates, the Central American highlands offer some of the most rewarding cups in specialty coffee.