El Injerto Estate Single Origin Coffee Beans: Growing Information, Flavor Description, Brewing Suggestions, and Awards

Guatemala La Libertad, Huehuetenango El Injerto Pandora de Fatima

Country: Guatemala

Grade: SHB

Estate: El Injerto

Roast Level: Medium Roast

Processing Method: Washed

Variety: Pacamara

Batch: Competition Batch Pandora de Fatima EI07

Flavor Notes: Chestnut, Plum, Chocolate

Pour-over brewing for El Injerto: 15g coffee grounds, medium grind (Fuji Royal grinder #4), V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89°C. First pour with 30g water for a 27-second bloom, then pour to 105g and wait until the water level drops to half, then continue slow pouring until reaching 225g. Discard the tail end. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Guatemala Huehuetenango Pacamara - Competition Batch Pandora de Fatima-Pacamara PI07

The World-Class Coffee Estate - El Injerto

There are over ten thousand coffee estates worldwide, including those that produce commercial beans, high-quality beans, and rare varieties. Today, I'd like to introduce El Injerto, a renowned top-tier 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 name. El Injerto places special emphasis on environmental protection and organic farming, implementing strict quality control to ensure the quality of its green coffee beans. Through the Aguirre family's efforts, El Injerto has also earned Rainforest Alliance certification and has been a consistent winner in numerous international coffee competitions since 2002.

El Injerto Estate (also translated as "Grafting Estate") is one of the top estates in Guatemala — if it claims to be second, probably no one would dare claim first. It has won many world-class competition awards, which led to its current standing. Last year, the estate owner further elevated the estate's status, similar to Panama's famous Hacienda La Esmeralda. El Injerto Estate hosts global bidding competitions, and the competition beans it offers are exceptionally remarkable. Notably, its first batch of "Mocha variety" in 2012 set a world record, reaching an astonishing price of $500.5/pound USD, making it a truly star-studded estate.

For this competition, El Injerto Estate specially presented its "BEST El Injerto" series, featuring carefully selected small batches and varieties of exceptional quality from within the estate. Experienced farmers meticulously handpick ripe coffee cherries, and then cuppers eliminate batches that do not meet quality standards. Under such strict selection criteria, Pacamara varieties from El Injerto 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 produced by Guatemala's El Injerto Estate reached an astonishing price of $80.2 per pound for green beans in 2008. On the origin of the variety and its name: it is a hybrid derived from Maragogype (Elephant Bean) and Pacas, taking the first 4 letters of Maragogype and Pacas to form "Pacamara." It is an excellent coffee variety developed in El Salvador. The beans are very large, similar to Elephant Beans, approximately 21-22 screen size. It has been an outstanding coffee variety in Central and South America in recent years. Every country and farm hopes to find suitable regions to cultivate it and produce excellent coffee, similar to Panama's Geisha. Pacamara coffee is characterized by bright fruit acidity and exceptionally pure, delicate sweetness, although its appearance is quite similar to its cousin, the Elephant Bean. Since 2006, COE has cupped Pacamara from 30 estates, with some flavors truly belonging to superstars — 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. These are all excellent Pacamara representatives, but they are all award-winning batches, making them very expensive.

Pacamara plants are medium to tall with short internodes, large, corrugated, dark green leaves, and new leaves that are green or brown. The trunk is hard and sturdy, with thick, wide branches.

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

The cherries have a small protrusion at the flower disc position.

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 Maragogype beans.

Overall, almost all Pacamara beans are above screen size 17, with over 90% being screen size 18 or larger.

Pacamara offers full, rich, and complex flavors. Few coffee varieties possess both fruit acidity and noticeable sweetness, with diverse notes including stone fruits, vanilla plants, tropical fruits, chocolate, and sweet spices.

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

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

For pour-over, the V60 is FrontStreet Coffee's go-to dripper, and it suits floral, fruit-forward beans especially well. The FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Gutingding is a common first stop in specialty coffee, with bright citrus, berry, and floral notes and a green-tea finish; its acidity is soft and bright, more like the natural sweet-sour of fruit than a sharp tang, which makes it easy to accept.

The FrontStreet Ethiopia Huakui is one of the standout successes of recent years, dominated by tropical fruit aromas such as strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit, and lychee. It is noticeably sweet, with very little bitterness and a smooth, juicy body. The FrontStreet Panama Esmeralda Red Label Geisha is at the other end of the spectrum, with elegant jasmine, citrus, bergamot, and black tea notes, a clean and transparent body, and a long, layered finish.

For brighter acidity, the FrontStreet Kenya Small Tomato is a washed Kenyan from the Thika region, grown at 1,550-1,750 meters with the classic SL28 and SL34 varieties. Its 72-hour double washed fermentation brings out fruit aroma while keeping the cup clean; lightly roasted, it shows dried cherry tomato and floral notes, then a bright, firm acidity like fresh juice, a sweet mid-palate with pear and black plum, and a clean, long finish of brown sugar and green tea.