Special Report: Guatemala Antigua La Flor del Café - How to Brew the Perfect Cup?

Guatemala Antigua La Flor del Cafe

FrontStreet Coffee · Guatemala Antigua La Flor del Cafe

Region: Antigua La Minita

Soil: Volcanic soil

Altitude: 1850m

Varieties: Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai

Processing: Washed

01 | Region Introduction

Guatemala is located on the Central American isthmus, with many volcanic mountains and plateaus that produce high-quality Central American high-altitude, extremely hard coffee beans, making it the world's 9th largest coffee bean producing country. Guatemala's main coffee producing regions include Antigua, Huehuetenango, Atitlan, Coban, Fraijanes, and Acatenango, among seven major regions in all. All coffee beans produced in Guatemala, which has seven coffee producing regions, are Arabica, grown on highland terrain under subtropical climate conditions, with abundant and stable rainfall and fertile volcanic ash soil, creating extremely suitable natural conditions for coffee cultivation throughout the country.

Each region has its own distinctive flavors, with excellent acidity and fruity smoothness, making Guatemalan coffee one of the world's top-tier coffees and well suited to single-origin drinking. The Antigua region lies in the area dominated by the Madre plateau in the mountainous range that crosses Guatemala. Thanks to the natural conditions of this region, Antigua has become Guatemala's most famous producing region.

Antigua Region Introduction

La Flor del Cafe is a brand coffee under the La Minita company, with the producing region located in Antigua City, Guatemala, a highland surrounded by active volcanoes at an altitude of 1850 meters, making it the country's most award-winning and famous producing region.

Antigua has little rainfall in summer, and in winter it occasionally frosts from excessive cold, which actually isn't suitable for coffee tree growth. Fortunately, it sits in an active volcanic zone. After volcanic eruptions, volcanic pumice falls into the soil and cools. Because these pumice stones have many fine pores, they are very good at retaining moisture. In addition, the large number of shade trees planted on the plantation prevents coffee trees from suffering cold damage in winter. These factors that overcome adverse conditions, combined with the large day-night temperature difference, have created Antigua's unique microclimate, giving the beans here a subtle smoky flavor and rich fruit aroma.

La Minita is famous for excellent cultivation, processing techniques, and extremely strict quality control. They commission Las Pastores, the largest local washed processing plant in Antigua, to process the green beans according to these standards, and name the resulting coffee La Flor del Cafe. In addition to preserving the original regional flavors, the dry aroma carries rich floral and tea notes, followed by lime acidity and berry flavors on entry, then transitioning to a honey-like aftertaste. Excellent cleanliness and rich layered complexity are the hallmarks of this FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala La Flor del Cafe.

La Minita Estate Coffee Cultivation

La Minita Estate does not use pesticides, and due to the climate and altitude formed by the estate's geographical advantages, the location limits the number of pests, and the few that exist do not cause significant damage to coffee trees. As the rainy season approaches its end, the coffee fruits mature. Green fruits begin to turn red, but coffee fruit maturation is very slow and uneven, unlike the rapid and consistent flowering. Harvesting must therefore be handled more carefully, taking only fully matured deep red fruits. The fruit from a single tree may be harvested up to 5 times depending on its maturity. The estate conducts soil testing twice a year to determine fertilization methods. La Minita is very careful when using products that can increase yields, fertilizing approximately 3 times a year.

Additionally, applying trace elements such as zinc, boron, and copper provides more nutrients to the coffee trees and helps prevent disease. Such scientific cultivation management has created the excellent flavor of La Flor del Cafe and maintained a consistent quality reputation for many years. Following La Minita's famous gatekeeping procedures, the entire process from cultivation to packaging of La Flor del Cafe is strictly supervised. These complex procedures ensure that the Pastores processing plant provides the best quality and strictly controls the estate's standard operating procedures. The Antigua region itself is the most famous of Guatemala's seven major producing regions, and its high altitude, unique volcanic soil, and shade cultivation give Antigua coffee beans a unique and special regional flavor.

02 | Processing Method

1. Removing Floaters: Pour the coffee cherries into a large water tank. Underdeveloped, inferior beans float to the surface, while mature, full fruits sink to the bottom. Remove the floating beans from the surface to complete the step.

2. Removing Peel and Pulp: Through a pulper, remove the outer peel and pulp of the coffee fruit, leaving the mucilage, parchment, and silver skin.

3. Fermentation: The purpose of this step is to use biological processing to remove the mucilage. Place the pulped coffee into fermentation tanks for 16-36 hours, where fermentation bacteria dissolve the mucilage.

4. Washing: After fermentation and mucilage removal, fermentation bacteria and impurities remain on the beans, so the coffee is washed again. To wash clean, this step consumes a large amount of clean water.

5. Drying and Removing Parchment, Silver Skin: Dry the coffee until the moisture content drops to 10-14%. Then use a huller to remove the remaining parchment and silver skin to complete the processing.

03 | Green Bean Analysis

[FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala La Flor del Cafe - Washed Processing]

The varieties of FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala La Flor del Cafe are mainly Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai. Bourbon and Typica are both ancient, high-quality coffee varieties. The bean appearance is relatively smaller and rounder compared to Typica.

Caturra has lemon or citrus acidity in flavor, but in terms of sweetness it doesn't match Typica and Bourbon. This is because Caturra's sweetness is determined by the frequency and dosage of fertilization by growers. It has high productivity, but maintaining that productivity requires continuous fertilization and pruning, resulting in short trees with many branches. Although productivity increases, the harvest period takes 2 years and care costs are higher, so yields are still somewhat limited.

04 | Roasting Analysis

This FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala La Flor del Cafe green bean is round, green with yellow tones, with relatively good uniformity and medium moisture content. The roasting goal is medium roast, preserving bright acidity to showcase floral and fruity aromas while enhancing richness and balance.

In the first batch of roasting, the dropping temperature was relatively high, with an entry temperature of 200°C and relatively high heat. During roasting it became clear that this FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala La Flor del Cafe bean has high altitude and harder bean density. To preserve more acidic aromas, a roasting technique of increasing the rate of rise and advancing first crack was adopted. Heat was reduced when the beans entered the yellowing point, completed dehydration, and before first crack, to avoid scorching the bean surface. The beans were dropped 1 minute 50 seconds after first crack ended, shortening the caramelization reaction time to preserve more floral and fruity aftertaste.

Roasting Machine: Yangjia 600g Semi-direct Flame

Heat roaster to 200°C, set air vent to 3. After 30s, adjust heat to 160°C, air vent unchanged. Return to temperature point at 1'36", maintain heat. At 4'50", the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell disappears completely, entering the dehydration stage; reduce heat to 140°C, adjust air vent to 4.

At 4'50" dehydration is completed, heat reduced to 140°C. At 8'32", the bean surface shows wrinkles and black spots, and the toast aroma clearly transitions to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 8'37", first crack begins, reduce heat to 80°C, air vent fully open to 5 (adjust heat very carefully, not so low that there's no crackling sound). Develop for 1'50" after first crack, drop at 195.3°C.

This FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala La Flor del Cafe washed coffee has obvious citrus acidity, with juicy acidity, rich floral aroma, pleasant sweetness, and medium body, with slight caramel and smoky notes in the finish. Overall it is clean and gentle, with a smooth texture and balanced, lively, layered complexity.

05 | Brewing Analysis

Recommended Brewing Method: Pour-over

Grind Size: (Japan Fuji R440) 3.5

V60 dripper, 15g coffee, water temperature 91°C

Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15

Segments: small water flow to 125g, pause, then slowly pour to 225g

Total time: approximately 1 minute 50 seconds

BG grind 4R

Grinder: BG

Grind Size: 4R

Dose: 15g

Dripper: V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Bloom: 30g water for 30s

Second Stage Water: 95g

Third Stage Water: 100g

Total Time: 1'58"

Total Water: 225g

Sweetness: ☆☆

Acidity: ☆☆☆

Bitterness: ☆

Other drip extraction suggestions:

French Press: Recommended grind size 3.5-4, water temperature 91°C

AeroPress: Recommended grind size 2.5, water temperature 90°C

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

This Antigua lot is washed and built around bright citrus acidity, floral aroma, and a clean, gently sweet finish, so if that style appeals to you, FrontStreet's washed lineup is a great direction to explore. The Yirgacheffe Gedingding cooperative is a standout: washed Ethiopian coffee from Gedingding village with jasmine florals and bright citrus and lemon acidity, medium-light roasted for green tea and honey notes, and it works well as pour-over, cold brew, or espresso.

If you want something more fruit-forward, FrontStreet's Kenya "Little Tomato" is a classic double-washed Kenyan, full of cherry-tomato and dark plum notes with a juicy, syrupy body and a clean, lasting finish, a fine showcase of what meticulous washing can do.