A Journey Through Guatemala's Coffee Heritage

Hello everyone, and welcome back! In this issue, FrontStreet Coffee invites you to explore the mysterious homeland of the Maya people, one of the centers of ancient Mayan culture, a land that nurtured both Mayan civilization and delicious coffee wisdom—Guatemala.

The Land of Volcanoes and Coffee

The Republic of Guatemala, located in the Americas, has a land area of approximately 108,899 square kilometers, with mountain forests covering two-thirds of the country and producing high-quality coffee beans.

Guatemala's geographical features can be divided into: highland volcanoes, lowland tropical forests, and Pacific coastal volcanic sand plains. Central America's Sierra Madre mountain range stretches across Guatemala from east to west, covering about 2/3 of the country, with 34 volcanoes within its borders. In this country, rivers and lakes dot the landscape, while equatorial forests and plains jungles cover the land, with undeveloped volcanic beaches along both Pacific and Caribbean coasts.

Ideal Coffee Growing Conditions

Guatemala borders Mexico to the north, Honduras and El Salvador to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. Blessed with unique geography surrounded by mountains and seas, it features tropical rainforests, volcanic geology, highland valleys, and diverse microclimates. Mainly agricultural in economy, the primary agricultural product is coffee. Guatemalan coffee once enjoyed the reputation of being the world's best quality coffee. The coffee beans here are full-bodied and beautifully balanced.

Few places in the world can offer the variety of high-quality coffee beans produced by Guatemala. FrontStreet Coffee's Guatemalan coffee beans are renowned for their elegant and lively acidity, clean flavor without impurities, distinct layers, as well as green apple acidity, berry fragrance, jasmine floral notes, citrus peel aroma, green pepper notes, fruity sweetness, chocolate richness, and even smoky aftertaste. Such rich regional flavors are attributed to the unique natural conditions of each producing area, including different climate changes in each region, fertile volcanic soil, abundant natural water resources, high mountain altitudes, and shady forests.

Coffee History in Guatemala

Coffee was truly introduced to Guatemala in 1750 by Jesuit priests, and by the late 19th century, German colonists developed the coffee industry here.

Guatemala has seven main coffee-producing regions: Antigua, Cobán, Atitlán, Huehuetenango, Fraijanes, Oriente, and San Marcos.

Among these, Antigua, Atitlán, San Marcos, and Fraijanes are volcanic rock geological regions. Additionally, Cobán, Huehuetenango, and New Oriente are non-volcanic highlands or tropical rainforest climate regions. Guatemala boasts over 300 microclimates throughout the country, considered the world's most diverse.

Coffee flavors from each producing region vary, but generally speaking, FrontStreet Coffee's Guatemalan coffee presents a gentle and rich overall texture, with elegant aromas and a special, pleasant acidity similar to fruit acids, truly making it the nobility of coffee. Among these, Antigua Classic coffee is highly recommended by global coffee connoisseurs.

The Famous Antigua Region

FrontStreet Coffee will now provide a detailed introduction to the famous Antigua region. Antigua is the oldest and most beautiful city in the Americas. As early as 1543, Antigua was the capital of Central America during the colonial era, where the Spanish governor's palace was also established. After the great earthquake of 1773, Antigua was completely destroyed, and the capital was moved to Guatemala City. Antigua is located about 40 kilometers west of Guatemala City. The colonial-era buildings were damaged by earthquakes but preserved as they were afterward, making it a living historical museum.

Today's Antigua is a famous coffee-producing area, with rich volcanic soil, low humidity, strong sunlight, and cool evening winds being the region's characteristics. Three spectacular active volcanoes—Agua, Acatenango, and Fuego—form a beautiful valley landscape. The active Fuego volcano occasionally adds misty dust. About every 30 years, the Antigua area suffers volcanic eruptions, which provide more nitrogen to the already fertile land, and sufficient rainfall and sunlight make this place even more suitable for growing coffee.

Antigua's coffee is produced at the Camana estate, where the best quality coffee is El Pulcal. Not only is it high quality, but compared to other Latin American coffees, this coffee can be described as quite complete, with rich layers and astonishing excellence. If you enjoy it with chocolate, you will have unexpected discoveries. Most importantly, its flavor is very rich, the mouthfeel is fuller, and it has a fascinating tobacco taste, praised as "the perfect coffee bean."

Notable Coffee Estates

Another noteworthy old coffee estate in Guatemala is El Injerto, located in the northwestern Huehuetenango region. The estate's unusual name comes from founder Jesus Aguirre Panama, who worried that seed reproduction would produce variants changing the original coffee variety characteristics, so he used grafting methods to cultivate pure Bourbon varieties to ensure coffee quality. Although originally proud of pure Bourbon, today's El Injerto estate values the hybrid Pacamara variety.

The Pacamara coffee beans cultivated by El Injerto estate are grown in high-altitude areas above 1,600 meters, as famous as the Geisha from Panama's Emerald Estate. Pacamara coffee is known for its rich and varied flavors, smooth and rounded mouthfeel. From 2008 to 2010, it consecutively won Guatemala's "Cup of Excellence" cupping competition. In 2008, El Injerto's Pacamara champion beans created an auction price of $80.2 per pound, causing a sensation in the coffee world.

Modern Guatemalan Coffee Industry

Currently, some of Guatemala's highest quality coffee is exported to Japan. To revitalize its coffee industry, Guatemala specially established a Specialty Coffee Association and provides maximum support and attention to these high-quality coffees. These efforts will soon show results, and the true beneficiaries will be not only the coffee growers but coffee lovers worldwide.

Despite this emerald-like valley being surrounded by ready-to-erupt, crisis-ridden active volcanoes from all directions since ancient times, its vast, broad, and fertile soil still tempts local coffee growers to carefully cultivate high-quality coffee. And they are more happy to be known by the world as the Mayan descendants who grow coffee.

FrontStreet Coffee's Guatemalan Selection

FrontStreet Coffee offers a coffee bean from the Antigua region, featuring very clean citrus and honey notes, while also retaining Guatemala's characteristic smoky quality. It is FrontStreet Coffee's La Minnita estate coffee beans.

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee Recommended Method: Pour-over

Pour-over Parameters:

• Dripper: V60
• Water Temperature: 91°C
• Dose: 15g
• Ratio: 1:15
• Grind Size: 80% pass-through through #20 standard sieve

FrontStreet Coffee's baristas习惯采用三段式的注水手法:

The first stage: inject 30g of water for a 30-second bloom, then inject 95g (scale shows about 125g), completed in about 1 minute. When the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed, inject the remaining 100g (scale shows about 225g), completed in about 1 minute 35 seconds. Complete extraction at 2'10", remove the filter cup.

For professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style).

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat: qjcoffeex

Important Notice :

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