Guatemala Gesha Coffee Beans - Acatenango Region Variety Introduction and Flavor Characteristics

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Geisha Coffee: A World of Exquisite Flavors

Geisha coffee boasts citrus, fruit sweetness without acidity, honey, and rich mouthfeel—a beloved coffee for all. Compared to Ethiopian coffee, Geisha has more of a juice-like quality, much like a glass of fruit juice tea, incredibly delicious and leaving an endless aftertaste.

Geisha originally grew in the forests of Ethiopia until it was discovered by Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda, becoming one of the world's most expensive coffees—more famous than even Blue Mountain. Consequently, various producing countries have begun cultivating Geisha coffee, such as Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica, and of course, coffee's birthplace, Ethiopia. Because different regions have varying climates and environments, even Geisha coffee will have different flavors depending on its origin.

Because of this, FrontStreet Coffee sources Geisha coffee not only from Panama's Hacienda La Esmeralda but also from other producing countries, such as Colombia's Hanami Geisha coffee, Costa Rica's Mirasou Geisha blend coffee, and Panama's Mariposa Geisha blend coffee. To allow more friends to experience Geisha coffee's flavors, FrontStreet Coffee has specially made Boquete Geisha coffee from Panama's Boquete region one of its daily brew beans.

Exploring Guatemala's Geisha Coffee

Today, let's learn about Guatemala's Geisha coffee.

Located in the center of North and South America, Guatemala occupies an important position in Central America with its subtropical climate. The terrain consists of high-altitude volcanic landscapes, where the mild climate and fertile soil create an excellent environment for coffee cultivation. Therefore, coffee is one of Guatemala's important economic crops, with green coffee beans accounting for about 40% of the country's total agricultural exports. Because of Guatemala's high-altitude volcanic terrain, Guatemalan coffee often has a slight smoky note in its finish. So, if someone asks you to recommend a coffee with smoky notes, now you know which coffee beans to suggest.

Guatemala's Coffee Regions

Guatemala has eight coffee-growing regions, all located on highland terrain under subtropical climate conditions. With abundant and stable rainfall and fertile volcanic ash soil, various regions of Guatemala offer extremely suitable natural environmental conditions for coffee cultivation. Each coffee region possesses unique flavor profiles. Among them, the most famous are the Huehuetenango region and the Antigua region.

Huehuetenango / Finca El Injerto

Among Guatemala's three non-volcanic coffee regions, Huehuetenango is the highest altitude and driest region.

Huehuetenango is located at the foot of the Cuchumatanes mountain range, the highest non-volcanic mountain range in Central America. Thanks to the warm, dry air blowing from Mexico, coffee in this region can be grown at altitudes of nearly 2000 meters without easily experiencing frost. The high-altitude growing environment, combined with the region's abundant water resources, allows Huehuetenango to produce excellent quality coffee with full, plump beans, clean and smooth flavors, and bright acidity, mostly possessing aromatic and transparent fruit notes.

Finca El Injerto, which has won multiple Cup of Excellence (COE) championships, is located on the Huehuetenango plateau. The estate has been cultivating coffee since 1900 and is operated by the Aguirre family. Large areas of primary rainforest are preserved on the estate, with extensive plant shade coverage, and average temperatures around 18 to 22 degrees Celsius. Abundant plant shade coverage, high-altitude cultivation, sufficient sunlight, and pleasant temperatures provide a uniquely advantageous living environment for coffee trees.

Coffee from one of the most famous coffee-producing regions carries flavors of berries, lemon peel, and fruit acids. Compared to Ethiopian coffee, the mouthfeel tends to be fuller. FrontStreet Coffee has also selected coffee from this region as Guatemala's representative example among its daily brew beans.

Antigua

Rich volcanic soil, low humidity, strong sunlight, and cool evening winds are the characteristics of the Antigua region. Three spectacular active volcanoes—Agua, Acatenango, and Fuego—form a beautiful valley landscape. The active Fuego volcano occasionally adds mysterious dust. FrontStreet Coffee's single-origin Guatemala Flor de Café comes from this region.

Guatemala Acatenango Gesha

In 2007, Guatemala added an 8th coffee region, Acatenango Valley, which we translate as "Acatenango Region."

Acatenango is located in Guatemala's Chimaltenango province. Over 5,000 hectares of coffee gardens throughout the region have fertile volcanic soil, mainly situated between two major volcanic mountain ranges, and almost all have forests and shade trees. As can be seen from the photos above, estates almost all adopt shade cultivation. The main varieties are still Bourbon, with some Catuai and Caturra.

Acatenango's two major volcanoes are Volcan de Fuego and Volcan Acatenango. Acatenango is actually the third highest peak among Central America's many volcanoes. Across the Fuego volcano lies Lake Atitlán. The region's annual rainfall is 48 to 72 inches, with an average temperature between 14-31°C. The sufficient temperature difference helps create dense bean quality and contributes to flavor development. The main coffee harvest season is from mid-January to March. Currently, the Kaqchikel people still live in this region and maintain traditional farming methods. In total, there are about 4,000 farming families in this producing region, and coffee cultivation can be traced back to 1880.

Guatemala Gesha is produced by a small estate in Acatenango, from the same batch as the well-known green coffee supplier Sweet Maria's. Due to its high quality—floral notes, tropical fruits, and rich sweetness, the classic flavors of Gesha—Sweet Maria's has been purchasing Gesha from this region for several consecutive years. Acatenango is located in southwestern Guatemala, west of the Antigua region, near the famous Acatenango volcano. Gesha is an ancient excellent variety from Ethiopia, belonging to the natural mutation of Typica. It was brought to Costa Rica decades ago through an experimental program, where several estates obtained this coffee for small-scale trial planting to understand its advantages and disadvantages. Later it spread to Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, and other countries. However, it wasn't until Hacienda La Esmeralda in Panama conducted cupping of independent Gesha batches that people understood this variety's special and excellent flavor. Gesha won the Best of Panama competition in 2004, and only then did the world learn of this coffee's unique and wonderful flavor. Rich floral and fruit notes seem to surpass even the Yirgacheffe coffee from half a world away.

Acatenango Gesha has rich floral notes and can be said to possess classic Gesha flavors: fresh perfume, honey sweetness, and complex multi-layered characteristics. The dry aroma of light roast has long, elegant floral notes (white flowers like jasmine), vanilla plant notes, and tea fragrance, with some citrus and stone fruit sweetness. The wet aroma further enhances the floral notes, like a large bouquet of orange blossom flowers placed before your nose. Beyond the floral notes, there's abundant honey sweetness, with some rose water and chrysanthemum tea notes. When tasting, the flavor might be somewhat mild at higher coffee temperatures, but at medium to low temperatures, the floral and honey notes develop strongly. Fresh jasmine flower notes bring out lime's sweet and sour notes, herbal tea fragrance and honey sweetness, with cantaloupe, lemon, citrus, and bergamot sweet and sour notes. The fruit acid is bright, combining citrus and green apple sweetness and sourness. Besides tropical fruit flavors, there are also refreshing vanilla plant notes and black tea fragrance!

Guatemala Coffee Bean Processing Methods

Guatemala coffee beans primarily use the washed processing method.

After harvesting, the selected coffee cherries are put into a pulping machine to initially remove their skin and pulp. Then the coffee beans with remaining pulp and mucilage are placed in water for about 24 hours of fermentation. After fermentation, they are placed in flowing water channels for washing. After washing, the coffee beans are dried in the sun or with the help of drying machines until the moisture content reduces to about 12%, then transferred to warehouses. Finally, the parchment of the green coffee beans is removed before sales. This processing method can present a very clean mouthfeel. At the same time, FrontStreet Coffee believes that washed processing best represents a region's basic flavor characteristics, so this bean is also very suitable for coffee beginners to mark Guatemalan origin flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee's Roasting Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee offers two Guatemalan coffees: one is the daily brew Huehuetenango coffee, with varieties of Bourbon, Catuai, and Catimor; the other is the single-origin Guatemala Flor de Café coffee, with varieties of Caturra and Bourbon. Guatemalan coffee beans inherently carry the characteristic nutty and cocoa notes of Latin America, with light floral notes and soft fruit acids. FrontStreet Coffee uses a medium-light roasting approach to preserve more floral and fruit aromas, with clean and bright acidity.

FrontStreet Coffee's Guatemala Brewing Parameters

Guatemala's coffee beans are medium-light roast. Lightly roasted beans have lower soluble solids extraction rate than dark roasts. FrontStreet Coffee recommends using a V60 dripper with faster flow rate, higher water temperature, and finer grind size.

FrontStreet Coffee uses medium-fine grind/sugar granule size (80% pass-through rate with China No. 20 standard sieve). Using 15g of coffee powder, then pairing with a V60 dripper, 91°C water temperature, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, and a three-stage pouring technique for brewing.

Using three-stage extraction, bloom with twice the amount of water as the coffee powder—that is, 30g of water for 30 seconds. The blooming process is necessary to allow the coffee powder to release internal carbon dioxide gas, thereby making the subsequent extraction more stable. With a small water stream, pour in circles until 125g, then continue pouring until 225g and stop. Wait until the water in the dripper has finished dripping, then remove the dripper. Start timing from the beginning of pouring, with an extraction time of 2'00". Next, pick up the entire cup of coffee, shake it well, and then pour it into cups for tasting.

Guatemala Huehuetenango Coffee Flavor Characteristics: Citrus and berry acidity, lemon peel, nutty aromas in the middle section, and tea-like aftertaste.

Guatemala Flor de Café Coffee Flavor Characteristics: Berry acidity, citrus, slight chocolate, rich layered flavors, and smooth mouthfeel.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Recommendations

Regarding coffee brewing, FrontStreet Coffee has always believed that the freshness of coffee beans greatly affects the coffee's flavor. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee ships all coffee beans within 5 days of roasting. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "Freshly Roasted Good Coffee," ensuring every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee when they receive it. The coffee resting period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive it, it's at peak flavor.

For friends who need ground coffee, FrontStreet Coffee kindly reminds you: if coffee beans are ground in advance, there's no need for a resting period, because during transportation, the pressure from carbon dioxide inside the packaging also helps round out the coffee flavor. So you can brew a cup immediately upon receiving the ground coffee. However, ground coffee needs to be brewed promptly, because coffee powder oxidizes quickly when exposed to air, meaning the coffee flavor will dissipate relatively quickly, and the coffee won't taste as good. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends purchasing whole beans and grinding fresh before brewing to better appreciate the coffee's flavor.

Contact FrontStreet Coffee

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Important Notice :

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