Coffee from Central and South America: Guatemala's Eight Major Coffee Growing Regions - Bean Varieties, Flavor Profiles, Grading System and Stories

Many first-time customers who visit FrontStreet Coffee to buy coffee beans are often surprised by FrontStreet Coffee's favorable prices. However, long-time fans of FrontStreet Coffee should know that the most cost-effective coffee offered by FrontStreet Coffee is undoubtedly the FrontStreet Coffee's daily bean series. These FrontStreet Coffee daily beans are all carefully selected by FrontStreet Coffee, representing the most classic flavors from major coffee-growing regions worldwide. FrontStreet Coffee wants coffee beginners to experience legendary coffee flavors, so the selected coffee beans all have very distinct characteristics. Friends interested in FrontStreet Coffee's daily beans will surely ask FrontStreet Coffee: which regions do these daily beans come from?

FrontStreet Coffee would like to briefly outline this for everyone. Currently, FrontStreet Coffee's daily beans are mainly concentrated in Africa, Asia, and Central and South America. Besides the most classic FrontStreet Coffee washed Yirgacheffe and FrontStreet Coffee Indonesian Mandheling favored by those with strong taste preferences, FrontStreet Coffee wants to specifically introduce FrontStreet Coffee's Guatemala Huehuetenango today. As one of the world's three major coffee-growing regions, Latin America produces many coffee beans with classic yet unique flavors, among which Guatemalan coffee is well-known as Latin American regional coffee. FrontStreet Coffee has a FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala coffee in its daily bean series, representing the most typical flavors of this region—rich fruity notes without losing full body, with a distinctive smoky aftertaste.

How Does This Special Coffee Flavor Come About?

FrontStreet Coffee always likes to get to the bottom of things. The flavor of a coffee is related to many factors—perhaps human factors, processing methods, the growing environment of coffee trees... Based on FrontStreet Coffee's offline production standards, we won't first consider the flavor impact created by baristas during the brewing process. Let's mainly look at the growing environment of Guatemalan coffee.

Here is a world map of Guatemala. From this map, you can see that Guatemala borders Mexico to the north, Honduras and El Salvador to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Guatemala is located in the tropics, with the northern and eastern coastal plains having a tropical rainforest climate, while the southern highlands have a subtropical climate. The year is divided into wet and dry seasons, with May-October being the wet season and November to April of the following year being the dry season. The narrow, fertile plains along Guatemala's Pacific coast have a tropical climate. The central highlands are also Guatemala's cultural center, where temperatures are mild year-round at 1300-1800 meters altitude, with daily temperatures between 18-28°C. At higher elevations, January and February tend to be quite cold. Annual rainfall in the northeast is 2000-3000 mm, while the south receives 500-1000 mm. Guatemala has a high average altitude, with coffee zones distributed above 1500 meters between 14-16 degrees north latitude, making it ideal for growing strictly hard beans. All are washed processed, with 45% classified as specialty grade—a remarkably high proportion, along with a small amount of Robusta.

When FrontStreet Coffee was looking up Guatemala's topographic map, it was truly startling: two-thirds of the entire territory consists of mountains and plateaus. The west has the Cuchumatanes mountain range, the south has the Madre mountain range, and the west and south belong to volcanic zones with over 30 volcanoes. Tajumulco Volcano, at 4211 meters altitude, is the highest peak in Central America. Earthquakes are frequent. The north has the Petén lowlands. The Pacific coast has narrow coastal plains. Major cities are mostly distributed in the mountain basins of the south. The northern lowland plains of Petén are tropical rainforest, while volcanoes in the central highlands reach 4200 meters. Guatemala's coat of arms is circular, with a displayed scroll in the center of a blue circular field.

FrontStreet Coffee believes the above can be called excellent conditions for coffee cultivation: backed by mountains and facing the sea, tropical climate, and volcanic geology. Friends who often read FrontStreet Coffee's educational articles will surely know that high altitude is crucial for developing high-quality coffee beans, while the large span in altitude also means varied microclimates.

When FrontStreet Coffee cupped multiple coffee beans from the Guatemalan region, the smoky sensation surprised everyone. The smoky feeling in coffee beans from other regions would likely be identified by FrontStreet Coffee as a defect flavor, because the smoky sensation creates a throat-catching feeling when drinking coffee. However, the smoky taste found in the Guatemalan region is a strong, rugged yet comfortable flavor. If you think FrontStreet Coffee's description sounds a bit mystical, you can find this FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala coffee at FrontStreet Coffee's online Taobao store and try it yourself.

Historical Background

According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, as early as 1747, Guatemala already knew how to grow and drink coffee. In 1750, Jesuit priests introduced coffee trees to Guatemala. In 1845, with the establishment of the Guatemalan Coffee Plantation and Promotion Committee, coffee became an important economic crop in Guatemala. With strong government promotion, by 1880, coffee accounted for 90% of Guatemala's total exports.

But nothing is ever that smooth, right? To obtain greater coffee production, those in power set their sights on indigenous people's land, forcing them to sell their land and move to more barren areas. The second wave of exploitation came from large corporations. During the Great Depression of 1930, the ruling Jorge Ubico sought to stimulate export markets by striving to reduce costs, while also granting more power and land to the large American United Fruit Company (UFC). After Jorge Ubico stepped down, his successor President Arbenz wanted to reclaim some land from UFC and redistribute it to farmers. However, in 1954, his government was overthrown by a coup initiated by the American CIA. Factors such as poverty, unequal land distribution, famine, and discrimination against indigenous people triggered a civil war (1960-1966), and these problems still exist today, thus affecting the development of Guatemalan coffee to some extent.

Guatemala's Coffee Regions

Guatemala is divided into several coffee-growing regions. You can get a simple understanding through the picture below. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will take two Guatemalan coffee beans currently available in stores as examples to introduce two famous coffee regions in Guatemala: Antigua and Huehuetenango.

FrontStreet Coffee's daily beans include a FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala coffee from the Huehuetenango region. This region is located in the northwestern highlands of Guatemala, with cultivation altitudes reaching 1800-2100 meters, making it the highest-altitude coffee-growing region in the country, renowned for producing excellent quality beans. Due to numerous rivers and lakes throughout Guatemala, the Huehuetenango area has rich mountains and water resources. The climate is dry but water is abundant, and the region has complete water conservancy facilities, so coffee mostly uses washed processing. Harvest period: January-April.

FrontStreet Coffee · Guatemala Huehuetenango Coffee Beans

Country: Guatemala
Region: Huehuetenango
Altitude: 1500-2000 meters
Varieties: Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai
Processing: Washed
Brewing Flavor: Citrus and berry acidity, lemon peel, with nutty aroma in the middle section, and a tea-like aftertaste.

Huehuetenango is an important coffee-growing region in Guatemala, and the pronunciation of the region's name is quite interesting. This name originates from Nahuatl, meaning "land of ancestors (or ancient people)." The Huehuetenango region is located in the northwestern highlands of Guatemala, with cultivation altitudes reaching 1800-2100 meters, making it the highest-altitude coffee-growing region in the country, renowned for producing excellent quality beans. Due to numerous rivers and lakes throughout Guatemala, the Huehuetenango area has rich mountains and water resources. The climate is dry but water is abundant, and the region has complete water conservancy facilities, so coffee mostly uses washed processing. When FrontStreet Coffee cupped coffee beans from this region, they possessed aromatic, bright fruit notes and refreshing flavors. Due to high altitude, the coffee beans have excellent quality, rich flavors, and full particles.

The Antigua region is located in the area dominated by the Madre plateau in the topographically mountainous range that crosses Guatemala. Due to natural condition factors in this region, Antigua has become the most famous among Guatemala's eight major coffee-growing regions. High altitude, unique volcanic soil, and shade cultivation give coffee beans distinctive regional flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee · Guatemala Antigua Flor de Jade

Origin: Antigua
Trader: La Minita
Altitude: 1200-1600 meters
Varieties: Bourbon, Caturra
Processing Method: Washed
Brewing Flavor: When hot, it has bright lemon-like acidity. As it gradually cools, juice-like mouthfeel emerges with faint white floral notes, followed by cocoa and subtle smoky sensations that add layers to this FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala Flor de Jade coffee, finally concluding with caramel-like aftertaste that perfectly completes this cup of coffee.

Antigua has little rainfall in summer and occasionally experiences frost due to excessive cold in winter, which actually isn't suitable for coffee tree growth. Fortunately, it's located in an active volcanic zone. After volcanic eruptions, volcanic pumice falls into the soil and cools. These pumice stones have many fine pores, making them excellent for moisture retention. Additionally, the large number of shade trees planted in the estates prevents coffee trees from suffering cold damage in winter. These factors that overcome adverse conditions, combined with large day-night temperature differences, create Antigua's unique microclimate, giving the coffee beans here a subtle smoky flavor and rich fruit aroma.

Here FrontStreet Coffee needs to tell friends who are just starting to explore specialty coffee that coffee processing methods, to some extent, affect coffee flavors. FrontStreet Coffee deeply understands this, which is why most coffee beans, whether FrontStreet Coffee's daily beans or other online coffee beans, are washed processed. Of course, this excludes some coffee beans famous for special processing methods. FrontStreet Coffee's purpose is to enable coffee beginners to develop basic sensory understanding of coffees from major growing regions worldwide.

Coffee Bean Classification

The classification of coffee beans often confuses many people. Different coffee-producing countries have varying classification standards. Like Central American producing countries such as Costa Rica, El Salvador, Mexico, and Honduras, Guatemala's classification is also based on altitude. Coffee produced at high altitudes generally has higher quality than that produced at low altitudes because as altitude increases, temperature decreases. In high-altitude environments, coffee grows more slowly, which facilitates the accumulation of beneficial substances. This is why altitude is used for quality grading.

SHB (Strictly Hard Bean): Grown at altitudes of 1500-1700 meters;
HB (Hard Bean): Grown at altitudes of 1350-1500 meters;
SH (Semi Hard): Grown at altitudes of 1200-1350 meters;
Extra Prime: Grown at altitudes of 1000-1200 meters;
Prime: Grown at altitudes of 850-1000 meters;
Good Washed: Grown at altitudes of 700-850 meters.

At the beginning of the article, FrontStreet Coffee told everyone that FrontStreet Coffee's offline store coffee production has certain standards. So what are these standards? Here are some coffee brewing parameters for your reference only:

Dripper: Hario V60
Water Temperature: 90-91°C
Grind Size: Medium-fine grind/20号 sieve to 80%
Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15
Coffee Dose: 15 grams

FrontStreet Coffee's Three-Stage Brewing Method

First, preheat the dripper and server. Pour in 15g of coffee powder and gently tap to level the surface. Begin the first pour, pouring 30g of water in a circular motion from the center and let it bloom for 30 seconds. The ideal state is that all coffee powder is evenly moistened, forming a small "coffee dome." After 30 seconds, begin the second pour. During this stage, the water stream height should be 3-5cm, pouring 95g of water in concentric circles from the center outward, making the total poured water 125g. The coffee liquid surface should be completely golden coffee foam. When the powder bed is about to be exposed, begin the final pour, pouring 100g of water in slow concentric circles, maintaining consistent water flow. When all coffee liquid from the dripper has flowed into the server, remove the dripper and end extraction. Total time is 2 minutes and 8 seconds.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

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