How to Brew Guatemala Inul Farm Green Ribbon Coffee Deliciously | Inul Green Ribbon Coffee Acidity

Guatemalan Coffee - [Ribbon Identification Method]

Green Ribbon / Blue Ribbon / Purple Red Ribbon

Why?

Why would an estate owner design markers like these?

Family Bonds' Insul Farm sits in the INSUL region of Huehuetenango, Guatemala, and through continuous innovation and reform it has grown into the largest farm in that part of the country. It runs its own processing plant and has won the COE (Cup of Excellence) international award five times.

The burlap bags tied with green string hold this year's latest processed batch from Insul Farm. The team uses lower coffee temperatures to naturally dry and ferment Pacamara cherries for 25 days, aiming for a more complete flavour.

The burlap bags tied with ribbons in this container are the estate's special, finest lots of the year, with just 1-3 bags available per batch.

So what do the three ribbon colours each stand for?

The [Green Ribbon] Representing Life and Vitality

How to Brew Guatemalan Coffee [Insul Farm Green Ribbon] Well?

FrontStreet Coffee's pour-over recommendation: weigh 15g of [Insul Farm Green Ribbon] coffee and grind it medium. The particles should be slightly coarser than table salt. We use BG grinder setting 5R (60% standard sieve pass rate), a water temperature of 89°C and a V60 dripper.

Pour hot water from the kettle in clockwise circles centred on the middle of the dripper. Start the timer as you begin, brew to 30g in 15 seconds, then stop pouring. When the clock reaches 1 minute, pour the second time, again in clockwise circles centred on the middle. Avoid pouring where the coffee bed meets the filter paper, to prevent channelling.

On the final pass, work outward to one circle short of the edge of the coffee bed, then pour circle by circle back toward the centre. At 2 minutes and 20 seconds, pour to 220g to finish the brew.

Japanese-Style Ice Pour-Over [Insul Farm Green Ribbon]

FrontStreet Coffee's ice pour-over [Insul Farm Green Ribbon] recommendation:

Guatemalan coffee [Insul Farm Green Ribbon], light-medium roast, BG grinder setting 5M (67% standard sieve pass rate).

20g of coffee, 150g of ice cubes, 150g of hot water. The water temperature should be 1°C higher than the normal pour-over recommendation of 90°C. For normal grinding use the Fuji grinder setting 3.5; for ice pour-over, grind half a notch finer, Fuji grinder setting 3.

Bloom with 40g of water for 30 seconds.

Pour in stages: 60g of water for the first stage, 40g for the second. Use a relatively thin but high water column to stir and agitate forcefully, letting the coffee bed tumble fully, but be careful not to let the water level rise too high or pour onto the filter paper at the edge.

The whole extraction should take about 2.5 minutes, similar to the normal extraction time for 20g of coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

This recipe uses a V60, and it is worth knowing why that dripper suits a coffee like Insul Farm Green Ribbon. Hario, the company behind the V60, was founded in Tokyo in 1921 and began as a maker of heat-resistant glass instruments for research labs. In 2004 it redesigned the early V60 into the form we know now, named for its distinctive 60-degree cone and "V" shape, and released it a year later. The cone and 60-degree angle force the water to travel to the centre before it drips through, lengthening contact with the coffee so aroma and flavour extract fully, while the single large hole lets the flow run freely, so the speed depends almost entirely on the brewer's control and shows up directly in the cup.

That fast, controllable extraction is exactly what flatters bright, aromatic coffee, which is why FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Gutingding is a fitting companion to a V60. Often the first specialty coffee people try, it brings vivid citrus, berry and floral notes with a green-tea sweetness, and its acidity is soft and bright rather than sharp. If you prefer tropical fruit, FrontStreet Coffee's Ethiopia Huakui has an intensely fruity, low-bitterness character with strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit and even lychee, sweet and juice-like with almost no bitterness.