Guatemala Coffee Grading System: Are Higher Grade Guatemala Coffee Beans Always Better?

FrontStreet Coffee: Guatemala coffee grading

Anyone familiar with coffee knows that high-altitude green beans, roasted under the same conditions, perform noticeably better than low-altitude beans in aroma persistence and flavor complexity. Using altitude as a grading criterion is therefore a typical classification method in the bean-grading standards of producing regions around the world. In Central America, coffee is mostly graded by altitude.

In Guatemala, beans grown above 1,350 meters are called SHB.

Grading by altitude

The standard exists mainly because coffee grown at high altitude generally has higher quality than coffee grown low. Higher altitude means lower temperatures, and slower development is beneficial for the accumulation of desirable compounds. High-maturity green beans also expand well during roasting, which makes the roast easier to control and the quality more stable.

Countries that currently adopt this grading standard include Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras, and El Salvador, among other Central and South American producers. Guatemala is a good example:

Guatemala coffee grades

SHB (Strictly Hard Bean) - extremely hard beans, grown above 1,350m, representing the highest grade of coffee.

HB (Hard Bean) - hard beans, grown between 1,200m and 1,400m, and SH (Semi Hard Bean) - semi-hard beans.

EPW (Extra Prime Washed) - extra premium washed beans.

PW (Prime Washed) - premium washed beans, and EGW (Extra Good Washed) - extra good quality washed beans.

GW (Good Washed) - good quality washed beans, with growing altitudes of approximately 1,200m, 1,000m, 800m, 600-800m, and below 600m respectively.

Key knowledge point

Guatemala has more than 300 microclimates across its territory, more than any other country in the world.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Altitude is only one axis of quality. The other is process, and for most of coffee's history the washing step has been the difference between a clean, structured cup and an inconsistent one. It is no accident that the grades above all end in the word "washed."

FrontStreet Coffee's washed coffees illustrate why. The Gutingtin cooperative coffee begins with the fact that most Yirgacheffe growers farm on a small scale and deliver their cherries to a shared processing station. Gutingtin is one such team, with accomplished processing experience and a cup refined and clean enough to have made its name; washing lets it show jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity to the greatest effect, and a medium-light roast adds green tea and honey. The Kenya Cherry Tomato is one of the best-known washed coffees anywhere, because Kenya excels at the double-wash method: the beans are floated and washed, soaked to remove remaining mucilage, rinsed, soaked again, dried, and hulled. All that rinsing and soaking draws out the juice sensation, yielding cherry tomato, smoked plum, snow pear, black plum, and brown sugar aromas with a sweet-sour, juicy body that coffee drinkers love. The Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 explains the origin of the method itself. Jamaica is an island climate with less sunlight than most origins, and removing the skin, pulp, and mucilage before drying cuts the moisture trapped around the bean, shortens drying time, and produces bright beans with a low defect rate. That is what protects Blue Mountain's rich aroma and the pure hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel notes that keep it balanced, with no single note either overwhelming or missing.

Washed coffees generally reward a pour-over at a moderate temperature with a medium grind. Keep the pour even and the drawdown on schedule, and the cup will come out clear and sweet rather than muddled.