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What Makes Guatemala Antigua La Flor del Café Coffee Special? Guatemala Coffee Story

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style). La Flor del Café literally means "Coffee Flower," originating from the high-altitude central region of the Antigua volcanic area. What makes La Flor del Café special is that it's cultivated and processed using the industry's highest standards provided by the renowned La Minita estate from Costa Rica.

Professional coffee knowledge exchange, more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account cafe_style)

La Flor del Cafe: The Flower of Coffee

La Flor del Cafe literally means "The Flower of Coffee," originating from the high-altitude central region of the Antigua volcanic zone. What makes La Flor del Cafe particularly special is that it's produced with the industry's highest standards of cultivation and processing technology, provided by Costa Rica's renowned "La Minita" estate. They dispatch dedicated personnel to Guatemala to participate in quality control management and entrust the post-harvest processing to Pastores Mill, the largest-scale and best-equipped wet processing facility in the Antigua region. Therefore, it's no surprise that this coffee bean delivers exceptionally outstanding performance!

Upon grinding, it reveals the characteristic floral aroma of high-altitude premium coffee, along with rich fruity sweetness. When sipped, it unfolds with the fragrant sweetness of citrus and mulberry fruit tea, surpassing even the Huehuetenango region, which is famous for its fruity character! Under light roasting, it displays bright, clean fruit acidity, floral notes similar to Yirgacheffe, and a wine-like aftertaste, with very subtle smoky flavors. It exhibits high complexity and a medium-light body. Its flavor profile differs significantly from typical Antigua volcanic zone coffees. In the specialty coffee market, it's rare to find another premium Antigua coffee bean with such intense floral aromas yet a refreshing, non-sticky mouthfeel. The technical support provided by La Minita estate has been invaluable!

Brand Origin

La Flor del Cafe belongs to the La Minita Group's brand portfolio, produced by the renowned Las Pastores processing mill in Antigua.

Starting this year (2007), La Minita labels have been stitched onto the seams of the coffee bags to declare "sovereignty" and indicate its affiliation with the group. At the very least, the raw bean processing and quality control are definitely top-tier. The rest depends on praying for favorable microclimate conditions throughout the year.

The Antigua Region

Among Guatemala's seven major coffee-producing regions, Antigua is the most renowned. The main reason is that the coffee-growing areas are located at high altitudes in the volcanic zone. Unlike other regions that are affected by sea breezes or high humidity from large lake areas, Antigua's unique microgeography creates its distinctive flavor profile:

(1) Versatile volcanic fertile soil: Within Antigua, there are three major volcanoes: Acatenango (which has now become independent as Guatemala's 8th coffee region), Fuego, and Agua. Among them, Fuego is an active volcano whose continuous activity not only provides fertile volcanic soil to the Antigua coffee region but also unique volcanic pumice. This is the cooled product of volcanic magma eruption, possessing porosity and insulation properties that make it excellent for soil moisture retention. Since Antigua is the driest of the seven major regions, coffee growth requires sufficient water. The moisture-retaining capacity of volcanic pumice here perfectly compensates for insufficient rainfall, while also giving coffee beans more unique regional characteristics.

(2) High-density shade trees: Besides providing shade, these trees also prevent frost damage and create unique microclimates. Due to cold nights in Antigua, frost damage can occasionally occur between December and February. During these times, high-density shade trees play a crucial role in preventing coffee trees from frosting. Additionally, since the groundwater level in Antigua is not deep, these shade trees easily absorb moisture, forming a microclimate suitable for plant growth along with surrounding coffee trees.

(3) Drastic day-night temperature differences: These greatly help in the formation of sweetness and unique flavors in coffee cherries.

(4) High altitude: Coffee trees growing at high altitudes produce hard, dense beans with more pronounced aromas and distinctive flavor profiles.

Varieties and Processing

The Guatemala La Flor del Cafe primarily consists of Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai varieties. Bourbon, alongside Typica, ranks among the ancient, high-quality coffee varieties. Compared to Typica, Bourbon beans are smaller and more rounded in appearance.

Caturra offers lemon or citrus acidity in terms of flavor profile but doesn't match the sweetness of Typica and Bourbon. This is because Caturra's sweetness depends on the frequency and dosage of fertilization by growers. It has high production capacity, but maintaining this capacity requires continuous fertilization and pruning, resulting in short plants with many branches. Although productivity increases, the two-year harvesting cycle and higher maintenance costs still restrict overall yield.

La Flor del Cafe is produced by Las Pastores processing mill, with the brand belonging to the La Minita Group. Under the strict supervision of quality control personnel and cupping evaluations, they have established a rigorous procedure from cherry purchasing to washing, subsequent sun-drying, and drying. Of course, they also operate according to La Minita's famous strict raw bean selection procedures! Under La Minita's quality requirements and monitoring, it has finally earned a considerable reputation.

Roasting Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee suggests medium roasting for Guatemala coffee.

La Flor del Cafe raw beans are round, greenish-yellow, with good uniformity and medium moisture content. The roasting goal is medium roast, which both preserves the bright acidity to showcase floral and fruity aromas while enhancing richness and balance.

In the first batch of roasting, the drop-in temperature was relatively high at 200°C with relatively strong heat. During the roasting process, it was discovered that these beans come from high altitudes and are quite hard. To preserve more acidic aromas, a technique of increasing temperature rise and advancing first crack was employed. Heat was adjusted to finer settings when the beans entered the yellowing point, completed dehydration, and before first crack to avoid surface scorching. The beans were dropped 1 minute and 50 seconds after first crack ended, shortening the caramelization reaction time to preserve more floral and fruity aftertaste.

This Guatemala La Flor del Cafe washed coffee exhibits distinct citrus acidity with a juice-like quality, rich floral notes, pleasant sweetness, medium body, and slight caramel and smoky flavors in the finish. Overall, it's clean, gentle, with a smooth texture and balanced, lively, and complex flavor layers.