Guatemala Little Blueberry Estate Introduction to Pacamara

FrontStreet Coffee - Guatemala Little Blueberry Estate Pacamara Introduction

Guatemala Little Blueberry Estate

Country: Guatemala

Region: New Oriente

Altitude: 1550-1800M

Processing Method: Natural Process

Grade: SHB

Variety: Pacamara

Regional Introduction

Guatemala is located in Central America, blessed with a unique geographical environment. It connects to North America in the north and borders South America in the south. Facing the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico, its climate is relatively humid and hot, making it one of the world's important coffee-producing regions.

Situated in the tropics, Guatemala features numerous volcanoes. The northern and eastern coastal plains have a tropical rainforest climate, while the southern mountainous region has a subtropical climate. The year is divided into wet and dry seasons, with May to October being the wet season and November to April of the following year being the dry season. Annual precipitation ranges from 2,000-3,000 millimeters in the northeast and 500-1,000 millimeters in the south.

Forests cover half of the country's area, representing the optimal latitude for coffee production. As coffee is an important economic crop locally, a rich coffee culture has emerged. People drink coffee daily, and most include a cup of coffee in their lunch.

New Oriente

The New Oriente region is the youngest of Guatemala's eight coffee-producing regions. This area enjoys abundant rainfall and remains under cloud cover year-round. In ancient times, it was a volcanic area, and the soil here consists of metamorphic rocks, rich in minerals.

Before coffee cultivation began, New Oriente was one of Guatemala's poorest regions. Since the 1950s, farmers in the mountainous areas have taken advantage of the naturally nutritious land to start coffee cultivation. Gradually, this area has flourished and now stands as a rising star in Guatemala's coffee industry.

Little Blueberry Estate - El Morita

Little Blueberry Estate is one of the highest-altitude and most impressive estates throughout Guatemala. The estate owner manages the farm professionally, challenging coffee cultivation at 2,300 meters and pushing the limits of Arabica cultivation, where higher altitude is believed to produce better flavor. In recent years, it has demonstrated exceptional strength in various competitions.

Due to the extremely high altitude of this origin, one must pass through two cloud layers to reach it. The cold climate nurtures exceptionally resilient fruits, cultivating outstanding coffee flavors.

The estate's varieties include Pache San Ramon, Catuaí, Bourbon, Maragogipe, Pacamara, Maracatu, and Geisha. The estate owner plants different coffee varieties in different sections of the farm, with slightly different flavors and mouthfeel.

This estate is also an award-winning farm in the Cup of Excellence (COE) competition:

• 2013 Cup of Excellence - 2nd place

• 2014 Cup of Excellence - 3rd place

• 2015 Cup of Excellence - 2nd place

• 2016 Cup of Excellence - 9th place

• 2017 Cup of Excellence - 4th place

• 2018 Cup of Excellence - 3rd place

Honey Processing

Honey processing is an improved method of natural processing. The main difference from natural processing is that the outer skin and pulp are removed before sun drying, while the mucilage layer is retained for direct sun drying.

1. Removing Floating Beans (same as natural processing, though some regions may skip this step)

Coffee beans are poured into large water tanks. Underdeveloped, low-quality beans float to the surface, while mature, full fruits sink to the bottom. At this point, the floating beans are skimmed off, completing the removal process.

2. Removing Skin and Pulp (same as washed processing)

Through a pulping machine, the outer skin and pulp of the coffee fruit are removed. (This leaves the mucilage, parchment, and silver skin.)

3. Sun Drying

The mucilage-covered coffee beans are spread on drying grounds for direct sun exposure until the moisture content drops to 10-14%.

4. Removing Mucilage and Parchment

Using special machinery, the mucilage and parchment are removed, completing the processing steps.

Pacamara

Pacamara is a hybrid of Pacas and Maragogype, discovered in El Salvador in 1950.

First cultivated by Salvadoran researchers in 1958, Pacamara is a rare excellent variety developed through artificial selection. It combines the outstanding mouthfeel of the Pacas variety with the large size of Maragogype - the beans are at least 70-80% the size of elephant beans. The most distinctive characteristic of this variety is its lively and sharp acidity, sometimes with biscuit aroma, sometimes with fruit fragrance, and excellent thickness and oil sensation.

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