What are the flavor and taste characteristics of Guatemala La Bolsa? Planting story and historical brewing sharing

Did you know that quality coffee is grown in high-altitude volcanic regions? This is because volcanic soil is extremely fertile and can provide abundant nutrients to coffee trees, giving countries with volcanoes an advantage in coffee cultivation. FrontStreet Coffee shares coffee from a Guatemalan growing region—estate coffee from volcanoes.

Guatemalan coffee is renowned and located in Central America, where the geographical environment is uniquely advantageous. It connects to North America to the north and borders South America to the south. Facing the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, the climate is relatively humid and hot, making it consistently an important coffee-producing region worldwide. Situated in the tropics with numerous volcanoes, the northern and eastern coastal plains have a tropical rainforest climate, while the southern mountains have a subtropical climate. The year is divided into wet and dry seasons, with May to October being the wet season and November to April of the following year being the dry season. Annual precipitation in the northeast ranges from 2,000-3,000 mm, while the south receives 500-1,000 mm.

Bolsa: Huehuetenango Region

The Huehuetenango region is located in the northwestern highlands of Guatemala, with cultivation altitudes reaching 1,800-2,100 meters, making it the highest 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. Although the climate is dry, water is abundant, and the region has complete water conservancy facilities, so coffee is typically processed using the washed method.

Bolsa: Altitude: 1,500 meters

Bolsa: Pacamara is a hybrid of Pacas and Maragogype. First cultivated by Salvadoran researchers in 1958, Pacamara is an excellent variety rarely achieved through artificial selection. It combines the outstanding flavor profile of the Pacas variety with the large bean size of Maragogype, with beans at least 70%-80% the size of elephant beans. The most notable characteristic of this variety is its vibrant and complex acidity, sometimes with biscuit aromas and sometimes with fruit notes, with excellent thickness and mouthfeel.

Processing Method: Washed Method

Coffee beans are poured into large water tanks to remove underdeveloped floating beans; the pulp and fruit skin are removed and placed in fermentation tanks for 16-36 hours, where fermentation bacteria dissolve the mucilage; since fermentation bacteria and impurities may remain, washing is performed. The flavor profile shows distinct fruit acidity and higher cleanliness.

Bolsa: Large Bean Pacamara

The large Pacamara beans have relatively large particles and high density, and new season beans inherently have higher moisture content. During roasting, they absorb heat more quickly, and the Maillard reaction process is also faster. The yellowing point occurs around 5 minutes. The bean entry temperature is 200°C, and the heat is also adjusted relatively high. During roasting, the heat is gradually reduced as needed. The heat is fine-tuned when the beans reach the yellowing point, complete dehydration, and show first crack signs to avoid surface scorching. Under this operating method, the coffee's dehydration time is relatively shortened, with a temperature increase rate of 6-8°C every thirty seconds, and it enters first crack earlier, preserving more floral and fruit aromas, with clean and bright acidity.

Preheat the roaster to 200°C, open the damper to 3, adjust heat to 160°C after 30 seconds, keep the damper unchanged. The temperature recovery point is at 1'45", maintain heat. At 5'00", the bean surface turns yellow, grassy aroma completely disappears, entering the dehydration stage. Reduce heat to 130°C, adjust damper to 4.

Dehydration completes only at 7'30", reduce heat to 80. At 8'00", ugly wrinkles and black spots appear on the bean surface, and the distinct toasted bread aroma clearly transforms into coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this time, listen carefully for the sound of first crack. First crack begins at 8'15", reduce heat to 50, open damper fully to 5 (heat adjustment must be very careful, not so low that there's no cracking sound). Develop for 1'50" after first crack, discharge at 194°C.

Cupping Notes: Bolsa

Distinct and smooth sweet and sour sensation, with acidity of lemon, passion fruit, and plum, plus brown sugar aroma. The flavor continuously changes as the temperature varies.

Recommended Brewing:

Recommended method: V60 pour-over

Grind size: Fuji 3.5 (64% pass-through rate on Chinese standard #20 sieve)

Water temperature: 90°C

Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15

Time: 1'55" - 2'03"

Brewing Technique:

Bloom with 22g of water for 30 seconds. For the first pour, use a small water stream to reach 120-125g, circling from the center outward with slightly faster circles on the outer ring. For the second pour, increase water flow with slightly faster circling until reaching 225g, then stop pouring. The cutoff time is around 1:45 seconds. Remove the filter cone when the extraction time is reached, following the 30-120-225g pattern. Particularly when brewing Bolsa, the brewing time should not exceed 2 minutes, otherwise it's easy to extract astringency.

Important Notice :

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