FrontStreet Coffee Guatemala Little Blueberry Estate Pache Roast Curve Sharing

Guatemala sits in Central America with a truly distinctive geography: it connects to North America in the north, borders South America in the south, and faces the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico. Its climate is relatively humid and hot, making it one of the world's major coffee-producing countries.

Guatemala lies in the tropics, dotted with volcanoes. The northern and eastern coastal plains have a tropical rainforest climate, while the southern mountains are subtropical. The year splits into a wet season (May to October) and a dry season (November to April). Annual rainfall in the northeast runs 2,000-3,000 millimeters, while the south receives 500-1,000 millimeters.

This Pache coffee undergoes the natural process—a method rarely used in Guatemala.

The harvested coffee cherries are poured into large water tanks, where mature, fully developed cherries sink to the bottom and floaters are skimmed off. The whole cherries—skin, pulp, and mucilage intact—are then laid out on raised beds to sun-dry. They are turned regularly until they reach roughly 12% moisture content, a process that takes about two to four weeks. Finally, a hulling machine removes the dried outer skin, pulp, and parchment to reveal the green beans.

Roasting Analysis

Yangjia 800N semi-direct flame roaster (roasting capacity: 500g)

Preheat the drum to 170°C before charging the beans, with the damper set to 3. Ignite after 30 seconds, adjusting the heat to 140 while keeping the damper unchanged. The turning point occurs at 1'32" at 103.4°C. At 140°C, hold the heat level while opening the damper to 4. After 5 minutes, the beans turn yellow, the grassy aroma fades, and the drying stage gives way. Reduce the heat to 120 while keeping the damper at 4. At 176°C, drop the heat to 100 while maintaining the damper setting.

At 8'30", drying is complete: wrinkles and dark spots appear on the bean surface, the toasted-bread aroma turns to true coffee fragrance, and first crack is imminent. Listen closely for it. First crack begins at 9'20"; open the damper fully to 5 and reduce the heat to 70. The development time after first crack is 1'30", and the beans are dropped at 195.4°C.

Cupping Notes

Berries, almond, fermented wine aroma, ripe fruits, cream, caramel, roasted brown rice tea

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Natural processing is the oldest—and still one of the most widely used—ways to prepare coffee. The harvested cherries are dried whole in the sun until they hit target moisture, then hulled. Because the fruit stays on the bean throughout drying, natural coffees typically show fuller body and rich, mature fruit tones. The method is demanding: it needs consecutive sunny days, and drying usually runs 27 to 30 days.

If this roasting profile makes you curious about natural-processed beans, FrontStreet Coffee's Yirgacheffe Natural Red Cherry is a great place to start. Only fully ripe, defect-free cherries are selected, then spread on raised beds away from the ground so the fruit avoids insects, dust, and contamination. The cherries are turned regularly to prevent uneven heating, and dried for three to five weeks. After a light-medium roast, it offers elegant florals and bright acidity alongside pronounced tropical fruit, a full fermented richness, and deep sweetness—citrus-like acidity, berry juiciness, honeyed sweetness, and cream-smooth texture.

Prefer something from the Americas? FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate shows how Brazilian farms adapted drying to their drier climate. The cherries are dried on raised racks and turned constantly so every cherry sees the sun, then finished mechanically to reach the right moisture. Brewed as pour-over, French press, or drip bag, it delivers the fresh sweetness of sugarcane juice, black tea, smooth fruit sweetness, clear nutty character, gentle and clean bitterness, and a rich chocolate-and-nut finish with a silky, rounded mouthfeel.