Guatemalan Coffee Beans | San Marco Volcano Region | Viscaya Estate Red Catuai, Bourbon

FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala Coffee Selections

From Boursa Pacamara to the 2018 Geisha — including Panama La Esmeralda Estate Red Label Natural, Blue Label Washed, and Green Label Natural processing methods.

Estate Introduction

The Viscaya Coffee Estate is located in Guatemala's earliest producing region, an area renowned for high-quality coffee for two hundred years. The estate's coffee grows along mountain ridges at elevations ranging from 1,300 to 1,800 meters. With temperatures between 21 to 27 degrees Celsius, influenced by Pacific sea breezes and humidity, relative humidity ranges from 70% to 80%, with rainfall between 4,000 to 5,000 millimeters — making it the wettest of Guatemala's eight producing regions.

Thanks to the volcanic ash supplied by the nearby active Santiaguito volcano, the estate enjoys rich volcanic soil. The Santa Maria volcano, meanwhile, produced the largest eruption of the 20th century in 1902: massive amounts of volcanic ash blocked sunlight and caused global temperatures to drop by half a degree. Every coffee estate in the area was buried under ash, and production fell by 75%, taking twenty years to gradually recover.

The volcanic ash from the nearby active Santiaguito volcano makes the soil even more fertile. The estate covers 500 hectares, with 80% dedicated to cultivation and 20% preserved as tropical rainforest. The cultivated varieties include Bourbon, Catuaí, and Caturra, and the shade trees consist mainly of local Inga trees along with some fruit trees. The harvest period runs from December to March, making it the earliest-harvesting region in Guatemala. Owing to the climate and unpredictable rainfall, most estates operate their own washing facilities, dry the coffee partially in courtyards, and then finish the drying with low-temperature methods.

Coffee Profile

• Estate: Viscaya Estate
• Region: San Marcos Volcanic Region
• Altitude: 1,200-1,400m
• Soil: Volcanic soil
• Rainfall: 4,000 - 5,000 mm
• Processing: Washed
• Certification: ERGOS Origin Select
• Varieties: Red Catuai, Bourbon
• Bean Size: 15 to 18 - 90.0%
• Moisture Content: 10.2%
• Flavor Notes: Caramel and nut undertones, bright California plum acidity, herbal notes. Medium-dark roast with excellent balance and cleanliness, recommended for espresso blends.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If Guatemala's volcanic terroir has you curious about what high-altitude mountain coffee can taste like, the crown of the category is still Geisha. FrontStreet Coffee carries a full Geisha range: for a first taste at a friendly price, the FrontStreet Boquete Geisha from Panama delivers the classic orange-blossom sweetness and honeyed finish of premium Panamanian Geisha, with an oolong-tea texture and delicate fruity acidity. For connoisseurs, the FrontStreet Esmeralda Red Label (Esmeralda Special) grows at 1600-1800m, every batch is cupped above 90 points, and each batch number comes entirely from a single small plot — while the Esmeralda Green Label (Private Collection) blends batches from multiple plots to express the estate's signature high-altitude Geisha character at a more accessible price.

To brew Geisha at its best, FrontStreet suggests a medium-light roast ground to pass 78% through a Chinese #20 sieve (about the size of fine granulated sugar), water at 91°C, and a 1:16 coffee-to-water ratio — 15g of coffee in a Hario V60. Bloom with 30g of water for 30 seconds, then pour in slow circles to 125g; once the bed has drained halfway, continue pouring to 225g, finishing the extraction in roughly 2 minutes 10 seconds to 2 minutes 20 seconds. The result is everything the finest mountain coffee has to offer — florals, juicy fruit, and a refined, lingering finish.