How to Brew Guatemalan Azotea Estate Coffee in a Pour-Over - A Complete Guide

Guatemala Coffee - Antigua LA Azotea

Green Bean Grade: SHB

Variety: Bourbon

Region: Antigua

Azotea Farm lies in northern Antigua, with a history stretching back to 1883. Its current owner, RICARDO POKORNY, is the fifth generation to run it. Azotea has even built a museum on the farm — and because the museum generates its own income, the farm doesn't lean as heavily on coffee revenue as its neighbors. That steady museum income frees the owner to research coffee cultivation in real depth. The farm has become a model case for organic pest and disease control, using organic pesticides and fungicides made from garlic, chili peppers, aloe vera, and other natural ingredients.

Azotea Estate sits in the Antigua region at 1645 meters. The beans are Bourbon, washed process, and coffee cultivation here began in 1888.

Guatemala occupies northwestern Central America, bordering Mexico to the north and El Salvador and Honduras to the south. The country counts 34 volcanoes, and forests cover two-thirds of its territory. Coffee arrived properly in 1750, brought by Jesuit priests. Today Guatemala produces roughly 3.5 million bags of coffee a year, with green coffee making up 40% of the country's total agricultural exports.

Ask anyone about Guatemalan coffee and the names that come up first are Huehuetenango and Antigua. Both grow mainly Bourbon, marked by lively acidity and a mellow flavor with a slightly wild edge. Antigua's charm, in particular, lies in its balanced, refreshing fruit acidity, rich spice notes, and a distinctive smoky character.

Altitude: Approximately 1645 meters

Processing Method: Washed

Cupping Notes: light citrus acidity, cream, nuts, caramel, clean and smooth body

How to Brew Guatemala Coffee [Azotea Estate] Well?

FrontStreet Coffee Pour-Over Reference: Weigh 15g of [Azotea Estate] coffee and grind it to a medium grind — the particles should sit slightly coarser than table salt. We use grinder setting BG 5R (60% standard sieve pass rate), 89°C water, and a V60 dripper for extraction.

Pour hot water from the gooseneck kettle in clockwise circles centered on the middle of the dripper. Start the timer as brewing begins, bring the coffee up to 30g within 15 seconds, then stop pouring. At the 1-minute mark, make the second pour — again clockwise circles centered on the dripper's middle, keeping the stream away from where the grounds meet the filter paper to avoid channeling.

When your circles reach the outermost ring, leave that ring untouched, then continue circle by circle toward the center. At 2 minutes 20 seconds, the coffee should reach 220g — brewing complete.

Japanese-style Iced Pour-Over [Azotea Estate]

FrontStreet Coffee Iced Pour-Over [Azotea Estate] Reference:

Guatemala Coffee [Azotea Estate], light to medium roast, grinder setting BG 5M (67% standard sieve pass rate)

20g of coffee, 150g of ice cubes, 150g of hot water. The water temperature runs 1°C higher than the normal pour-over recommendation, at 90°C. Normal grinding uses a small Fuji grinder at setting 3.5; for iced pour-over, go slightly finer — half a setting down, to 3.

Bloom with 40g of water for 30 seconds.

Segmented pouring: first segment 60g of water, second segment 40g. Use a relatively fine but tall water column, pouring briskly so the grounds tumble fully — but be careful not to let the liquid level rise too high, and keep the stream off the filter paper at the edges.

Total extraction time is roughly 2.5 minutes — right in line with the normal extraction time for 20g of coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

The V60 is FrontStreet Coffee's dripper of choice for a bean like this, and for good reason: the cone shape and signature 60-degree angle funnel the water toward the center before it drains, widening the contact between water and coffee so both aroma and flavor extract in full. FrontStreet Coffee favors the resin Hario V60 in particular — it holds heat well, and resin is the material that mass-production shapes most precisely, with the smallest tolerance errors.

Want another Central American pour-over to compare it with? FrontStreet Coffee's Mozart, from Costa Rica — a country famous for honey process — uses a distinctive raisin honey treatment: the peeled fruit ferments briefly before drying, and the finished beans carry rich notes of dried fruit, ripe pineapple, and sweet orange. As the hot water hits, a captivating osmanthus fragrance blooms from the cup — fragrant yet clean and sweet, and a natural fit for cold brew or iced pour-over.