Guatemala Antigua La Minita Estate Flora de Oro Coffee Beans Origin Processing Method Flavor Characteristics

Guatemalan Coffee Regions

Since the early 1990s, the country's coffee authority, Anacafé, has been working to define Guatemala's coffee-producing regions based on cup profile, climate, soil, and altitude. The result of this ambitious program is the identification of 8 distinct regions in Guatemala that produce Strictly Hard Bean (SHB) coffee: Antigua, Acatenango, Atitlán, Cobán, Huehuetenango, Nuevo Oriente, San Marcos, and Fraijanes.

Antigua Coffee

Antigua is Guatemala's most famous coffee-growing region and is said to be the birthplace of Guatemalan coffee. Rich volcanic soil, low humidity, abundant sunshine, and cool nights characterize the region, making it Guatemala's most outstanding coffee producer. The valley around the town of Antigua (from which the region takes its name) is surrounded by three volcanoes: Agua, Fuego, and Acatenango. Volcán de Fuego is an active volcano! Its periodic eruptions provide the region's soil with rich minerals, while the area also preserves vast amounts of primary forest, filling the soil with abundant potassium ions. Together, these factors provide coffee plants in the Antigua region with endless nutrition for healthy growth. The climate here is mild year-round with stable humidity (65%), creating ideal conditions for coffee cultivation. Unlike other regions, Antigua doesn't experience extreme climate changes during the alternating dry and rainy seasons, allowing coffee to grow slowly in valleys above 1,500 meters altitude. Because Antigua is an enclosed valley, it avoids severe soil erosion. All these unique environmental conditions enable Antigua to consistently maintain excellent quality.

Altitude: 1,500-1,700 meters

Annual rainfall: 800-1,200 millimeters

Average temperature: 18-22°C

Relative humidity: 65%

Harvest season: January to mid-March

Soil: Volcanic pumice

Primary drying method: Sun-drying

Shade tree species: Gravilea

Main topography: Volcanoes, valleys

Coffee profile: Elegant with balanced aroma, containing rich fragrance and extremely sweet flavor

Guatemala La Minita La Flor

Country: Guatemala

Region: Antigua

Estate: La Minita Estate

Altitude: 1,200-1,600 meters

Processing method: Washed

Varieties: Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai

Flavor: Unique floral aroma combined with smooth, fresh citrus notes, allowing floral and fruit sweetness to weave together a distinctive yet perfectly harmonious profile. Similar to red wine finish with hints of smoky notes, creating La Flor Coffee - a satin-like elegant and refined style.

About La Minita Estate

La Minita is a renowned green coffee processing facility in the specialty coffee industry. La Flor from Guatemala and Reserva del Patron from Colombia are both products of La Minita International Coffee Export Company, along with their flagship estate Hacienda La Minita in Tarrazú, Costa Rica. The La Minita family established their own coffee brand in Guatemala called "La Flor del Café," which means "The Flower of Coffee" and is translated into Chinese as "花神" (Flower Goddess).

The La Minita family has an excellent reputation for green coffee processing and quality control, providing the industry's highest standards of cultivation and processing techniques, directly dispatching specialists to Guatemala to participate in quality control. La Minita La Flor is one of their star products, processed by the renowned local Pastores Mill under La Minita's strict supervision. From purchasing green beans to washing and sun-drying, every step follows La Minita's rigorous procedures. The entire process from cultivation to packaging is strictly monitored - all these meticulous procedures ensure that the coffee beans provided by Pastores Mill are of the highest quality.

During the harvest season, the workforce expands to approximately 700 employees, with such a large number needed due to manual picking. The main coffee tree variety is Caturra, which maintains excellent flavor when well-processed. The coffee trees are well-pruned, typically not exceeding 5 feet in height, mainly to ensure even growth and sufficient sunlight absorption for quality assurance.

Additionally, the estate has a small number of Bourbon varieties, primarily because Bourbon offers excellent flavor and has different fruiting times, which helps balance the workload of harvest workers.

Coffee Varieties

This batch of La Flor coffee purchased by FrontStreet Coffee consists of Bourbon and Caturra varieties. Bourbon is a natural mutation of Typica, ranking alongside Typica as ancient, high-quality varieties. The beans are slightly smaller and rounder than Typica. Caturra is a natural mutation of Bourbon, offering fresh lemon-citrus acidity in flavor, though slightly less sweet than Typica and Bourbon.

Processing Method

This batch of La Flor purchased by FrontStreet Coffee is washed processed. First, harvested coffee cherries are poured into large water tanks. Underdeveloped, inferior beans will float to the surface, while mature, full fruits will sink to the bottom. At this point, the defective beans (fruits) floating on the surface are removed.

Then, a pulp screener is used to remove the outer skin and pulp from the coffee fruit. At this point, the coffee beans still have a slippery layer of mucilage attached.

Next, the mucilage-covered coffee beans are placed in fermentation tanks for 16-36 hours. During this process, microorganisms break down the mucilage. After fermentation is complete, large amounts of clean water are used to wash away the remaining mucilage residue from the coffee beans.

Finally, the cleaned coffee beans are sun-dried until the moisture content drops to 10-14%. Then, a hulling machine is used to remove the parchment, completing the processing.

Roasting Profile

FrontStreet Coffee's roasting goal is to reflect the flavor characteristics of the coffee's origin region. While every coffee bean can be roasted in various ways, FrontStreet Coffee believes that the roasted flavor should express the characteristics of its origin region. For example, Yirgacheffe should taste like Yirgacheffe, and then other possibilities can be developed based on this foundation. This is FrontStreet Coffee's only standard for determining coffee roasting.

Brewing Flavor

Brewing Recommendations

Guatemala Antigua Santa Clara Washed Bourbon

Coffee region: Antigua

Coffee estate: Santa Clara Estate

Growing altitude: 1,600-1,830 meters

Coffee variety: Bourbon

Processing method: Washed processing

Reference flavor: Strong fruit aroma, grape, bright lime acidity, date sweetness, chestnut sweetness, hazelnut finish

Santa Clara Estate

The Zelaya family has been growing coffee for over 100 years and is now in its fourth generation. This prominent family owns their own farms, and there are very few true "Antigua coffees" in the entire Antigua region of Guatemala.

Santa Clara Estate is located on the fertile slopes of the Agua volcano in Antigua, at an altitude of approximately 1,600-1,830 meters. The Zelaya family is passionately committed to maintaining excellent coffee quality and sustainable development. Therefore, farm management is very strict, with careful selection of planted varieties and meticulous processing methods to refine the coffee. Additionally, to protect the environment, the farm plants regular trees alongside coffee trees to achieve environmental protection and shelter the coffee plants. This avoids direct sunlight, maintains soil health, and provides important animal habitats where birds and insects can live. In processing, water used after washing coffee fruits is discharged into sedimentation tanks to prevent environmental pollution.

2001: Won third place in COE (Cup Of Excellence)

2009: Won COE award again

Santa Clara is also one of the founding members of APCA - Genuine Antigua Coffee Producers' Association.

Coffee Varieties

This bean from FrontStreet Coffee is the Bourbon variety from Guatemala.

Bourbon is a sub-variety resulting from Typica mutation, belonging to the same category as Typica as one of the oldest existing coffee varieties. When green fruits mature, they turn bright red. Compared to Typica, Bourbon plants have broader leaves and grow more densely. Although the yield is higher than Typica, the harvest period is still 2 years, making it a low-yield variety. However, it offers excellent quality flavor with wine-like acidity and a sweet finish.

The coffee beans are relatively large, uniform in size, and evenly colored with luster. For harvesting convenience, farmers prune the coffee trees to not exceed 150 centimeters.

Processing Method

At Santa Clara, every coffee fruit is hand-picked, then hand-sorted before being approved by the foreman to be sent to the processing plant.

The estate also employs approximately 50 "special pickers" who have demonstrated exceptional dexterity and attention to detail, selected to harvest some of the estate's micro-plots. These employees can earn double the daily minimum wage by picking coffee at the estate.

At the processing plant, coffee fruits are depulped, then fermented in fermentation tanks for 14-22 hours. Then, the coffee beans are washed to remove remaining mucilage and carefully dried on Ricardo's drying beds until the moisture content drops to around 11%.

These drying beds feature greenhouse-style enclosed tops with walls that can be raised or lowered to maximize airflow and control temperature and humidity.

This drying method allows Ricardo to better control the coffee bean drying process, enabling him to ensure slow and even drying of the coffee beans. Once drying is complete, the coffee beans are hulled at Ricardo's processing plant, with every step closely monitored to ensure high-quality requirements are met.

Throughout the entire processing, Ricardo also ensures the recovery and reuse of all organic byproducts. Water used in coffee fruit processing is discharged into sedimentation tanks to prevent pollution of local river systems, while the pulp is fermented by worms into fertilizer.

Roasting Profile

Brewing Flavor

Berry flavors reminiscent of blackberry, followed by citrus and orange peel notes, with nutty flavors that develop into black tea notes when cooled.

Brewing Recommendations

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