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

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, For more professional coffee knowledge and coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). Guatemala Antigua La Flor del Café Coffee Region: Antigua La Minita Soil: Volcanic soil Altitude: 1

Professional Coffee Knowledge Exchange · For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat Official Account: cafe_style)

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 in 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, Acatenango, and other seven major regions. All coffee beans produced in Guatemala, which has seven coffee producing regions, are Arabica, located on highland terrain under subtropical climate conditions, with abundant and stable rainfall, and fertile volcanic ash soil, creating extremely suitable natural environmental conditions for coffee cultivation throughout the country.

Each region has unique flavors, with excellent acidity and fruity smoothness, making it one of the world's top-tier coffees, suitable for single-origin consumption. The Antigua region is located in the entire area dominated by the Madre plateau in the topographically mountainous range that crosses Guatemala. Due 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 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 due to excessive cold, which actually isn't suitable for coffee tree growth. However, fortunately, it's located 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. Additionally, the large number of shade trees planted in 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 coffee 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 the largest local washed processing plant in Antigua, Las Pastores, to process the green beans according to these standards, and name the coffee beans 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 upon entry, then transitioning to a honey-like aftertaste. Excellent cleanliness and rich layered complexity are the characteristics 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 conditions limit the number of pests, and the few pests that exist do not cause significant damage to coffee trees. As the rainy season approaches its end, coffee fruits will also mature. Green fruits begin to turn red, but coffee fruit maturation is very slow and uneven, unlike the rapid and consistent flowering. Therefore, harvesting work must be handled more carefully, only harvesting fully matured deep red fruits. The fruits from a single tree may be harvested up to 5 times depending on their maturity status. The estate conducts soil testing twice a year to determine fertilization methods. La Minita Estate 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 can provide more nutrients to coffee trees and prevent diseases. Such scientific cultivation management has created the excellent flavor performance of La Flor del Cafe coffee and maintained 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 coffee is strictly supervised. These complex procedures are all to ensure that Pastores processing plant provides the best quality and strictly controls the estate's standard operating procedures. The Antigua region itself is the most famous among Guatemala's seven major producing regions, with high altitude, unique volcanic soil, and shade cultivation, giving Antigua region coffee beans a unique and special regional flavor.

02 | Processing Method

1. Removing Floaters: Pour coffee beans into a large water tank. Underdeveloped inferior beans will float to the surface, while mature, full fruits will sink to the bottom. At this time, remove the floating beans from the water surface to complete the step of removing floaters.

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

3. Fermentation: The purpose of this step is to use biological processing methods to remove the mucilage. Place the coffee fruits processed by the pulp remover into fermentation tanks for 16-36 hours, where fermentation bacteria will dissolve the mucilage.

4. Washing: After completing fermentation and removing mucilage, since fermentation bacteria and impurities will remain on the coffee beans, the coffee beans are washed again. To wash clean, this step consumes a large amount of clean water.

5. Drying and Removing Parchment, Silver Skin: Dry the coffee fruits until 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 to maintain productivity, continuous fertilization and pruning are required, resulting in short trees with many branches. Although productivity is increased, because the harvest period takes 2 years and care costs are higher, 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,一方面保留明亮的酸质展现花香和水果香气，另一方面提升丰富度和均衡感。

In the first batch of roasting, the dropping temperature was relatively high, with an entry temperature of 200°C and relatively high heat. During the roasting process, it was found that this FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala La Flor del Cafe coffee bean has high altitude and harder bean density. To preserve more acidic aromas, a roasting technique of increasing temperature rise and advancing first crack was adopted. The heat was reduced when the beans entered the yellowing point, completed dehydration, and before first crack, to avoid bean surface scorching. 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", bean surface turns yellow, grassy smell completely disappears, entering dehydration stage, reduce heat to 140°C, adjust air vent to 4.

At 4'50" dehydration completed, heat reduced to 140°C. At 8'32", bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and black spots, toast aroma clearly transitions to coffee aroma, can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, 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, medium body, with slight caramel and smoky notes in the finish. Overall, it's clean, gentle, with smooth texture and balanced, lively, and layered complexity.