How does Antigua coffee from Flor del Café taste and brew?
Antigua coffee from Guatemala's Flor del Café is grown at about 1,850 meters on volcanic soil, quality-controlled by La Minita and processed at the Las Pastores wet mill. The washed lots of Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai show citrus acidity, floral honeyed sweetness, and a smoky finish.
Guatemala is a Central American origin with high-altitude volcanic growing regions, and Antigua is among its most recognized. Washed processing and careful sorting support the cup's balance and layered coffee aroma. For pour-over, a medium grind with steady pulses and moderate water temperature lets the citrus and honey notes come through without flattening the smoky close.
Antigua Flor de Dios is one of the most prestigious representatives of Guatemala's producing regions, strictly quality-controlled by La Minita and carefully processed by the Las Pastores wet mill on commission. From the perspective of Front Street Coffee, this article systematically reviews the terroir of Flor de Dios coffee, its washed processing flow, green bean varietal composition, roasting curve design, and pour-over extraction scheme, comprehensively presenting how this bean showcases a balanced layering of citrus acidity, floral honeyed sweetness, and a smoky finish, offering coffee enthusiasts a reference guide that is both professional and practical.
Guatemala Antigua
La Flor del Cafe
Front Street Coffee · Guatemala Antigua Flor de Dios Coffee
Region: Antigua La Minita
Soil: Volcanic soil
Altitude: 1850m
Varieties: Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai
Processing: Washed process
01丨Region Introduction
Guatemala is located in the Central American isthmus, where volcanic activity has formed numerous high mountains and plateaus, producing high-quality high-altitude strictly hard coffee beans of Central America, ranking ninth among global coffee-producing countries. The country's coffee cultivation is concentrated in seven major regions: Antigua, Huehuetenango, Atitlan, Coban, Fraijanes, and Acatenango. All coffee beans produced in Guatemala are Arabica varieties, and the producing regions are all located in subtropical highlands with abundant and evenly distributed rainfall and fertile volcanic ash soil, providing exceptional natural conditions for coffee cultivation.
Different regions each have their own flavor characteristics, with excellent acidity and fruity aromas that are smooth and palatable, ranking among the world's top coffees and suitable for drinking as single-origin. The Antigua region is situated in the opographically mountain range that runs across Guatemala, with the entire area centered on the Madre plateau, and by virtue of its superior natural conditions, has become Guatemala's most well-known producing region.
Antigua Region Introduction
Flor de Dios is a brand bean under La Minita, with its origin located in Antigua City, Guatemala, surrounded by active volcanoes forming highlands at an altitude of 1850 meters, making it the country's most awarded and most renowned producing region.
Antigua receives relatively little summer rainfall, and winter occasionally brings frost due to severe cold, which strictly speaking is not an ideal environment for coffee tree growth. However, the area lies in an active volcanic belt, and the pumice stones from volcanic eruptions fall into the soil and cool, and these pumice stones are full of tiny holes with excellent water-retention capacity; combined with the estate's extensive planting of shade trees, coffee trees are protected from cold damage in winter. These measures to overcome unfavorable conditions, together with the significant diurnal temperature difference, shape Antigua's unique microclimate, endowing local coffee beans with a delicate smoky note and rich fruity aroma.
La Minita is renowned in the industry for its exceptional cultivation techniques, processing methods, and extremely rigorous quality control. With these standards, they commissioned Antigua's largest wet mill, Las Pastores, to process the green beans, and named the product Flor de Dios. This bean retains the region's original flavors, with the dry aroma carrying intense floral and tea notes; on the palate it presents lime acidity and berry notes, then transforms into a honey-like finish. Its extremely high cleanliness and rich layering are precisely the signature characteristics of this Front Street Guatemala Flor de Dios.
La Minita Estate Coffee Cultivation
La Minita Estate prohibits the use of insecticides, and the estate's geographical environment and climatic altitude conditions naturally limit pest reproduction, with the small number of pests insufficient to pose a significant threat to coffee trees. As the rainy season nears its end, coffee cherries enter their ripening period, with green cherries gradually turning red, but the ripening process is extremely slow and uneven, unlike flowering which is rapid and uniform, so harvesting must be done with particular care, picking only fully ripe deep-red cherries. Cherries on the same tree can be harvested up to five times due to differences in ripeness. The estate conducts soil testing twice a year to determine fertilization plans, and La Minita Estate is extremely cautious about the use of yield-enhancing products, fertilizing about three times a year.
In addition, supplementing trace elements such as zinc, boron, and copper provides more nutrients to coffee trees and prevents diseases. This scientific cultivation management has created Flor de Dios coffee's outstanding flavor expression and consistently reliable quality reputation over the years. Following La Minita's famous control process, every step from planting to packaging is strictly supervised; these elaborate procedures are designed to ensure that everything delivered by the Pastores mill is of the highest quality and to strictly manage the estate's standard operating procedures. The Antigua region itself is the most renowned of Guatemala's seven major producing regions, and its high altitude, unique volcanic soil, and shade cultivation give Antigua coffee beans a distinctive regional flavor.
02丨Processing Method
1. Removing floating beans: Pour the coffee cherries into a large water tank; underdeveloped defective beans will float on the surface, while ripe, plump cherries sink to the bottom. Scooping out the floating beans completes this step.
2. Removing skin and pulp: Use a pulping machine to remove the outer skin and pulp of the coffee cherries, leaving the mucilage, parchment, and silver skin.
3. Fermentation: This step aims to remove mucilage through biological processing. The coffee cherries processed by the pulping machine are placed in fermentation tanks for 16 to 36 hours, and fermentation bacteria break down the mucilage.
4. Washing: After fermentation is complete and the mucilage is removed, fermentation bacteria and impurities still remain on the coffee beans, so they need to be washed again. To ensure thorough cleaning, this step consumes a large amount of clean water.
5. Drying and removing parchment and silver skin: Dry the coffee cherries to reduce moisture content to 10% to 14%. Then use a huller to remove the remaining parchment and silver skin, and the processing is complete.
03丨Green Bean Analysis
[Front Street Guatemala Flor de Dios Washed Process]
The varieties of Front Street Guatemala Flor de Dios are mainly Bourbon, Caturra, and Catuai. Bourbon and Typica are both ancient and high-quality coffee varieties, with Bourbon beans being relatively smaller and rounder than Typica.
Caturra has a lemon or citrus acidity in taste, and its sweetness is inferior to Typica and Bourbon, because Caturra's sweetness depends on the number and dosage of fertilizations by the grower. This variety has high productivity, but maintaining productivity requires continuous fertilization and pruning, so the trees are short with many branches. Despite increased productivity, the harvest period lasts two years, care costs are relatively high, and yield is still somewhat limited.
04丨Roasting Analysis
This Front Street Guatemala Flor de Dios green bean is round in shape, green with a yellow tint, with good uniformity and medium moisture content. The roasting target is set at medium roast, retaining bright acidity to showcase floral and fruity aromas while enhancing richness and balance.
In the first batch of roasting, the drop temperature was relatively high, with a charge temperature of 200 degrees and relatively high heat. During roasting, it was found that this Front Street Guatemala Flor de Dios coffee bean has high altitude and hard bean quality; to retain more acidity and aroma, a roasting approach of raising the rate of rise and advancing first crack was adopted. Heat was adjusted down respectively when the beans reached the turning yellow point, completed dehydration, and before first crack, to avoid scorching the bean surface, and the roast was dropped 1 minute 50 seconds after the end of first crack, shortening the caramelization reaction time and preserving more of the lingering floral and fruity notes.
Roaster Yangjia 600g semi-direct fire
Raise the drum temperature to 200 degrees Celsius for charging, set the damper to 3, adjust heat to 160 degrees after 30 seconds, keep the damper unchanged, turning point at 1'36", maintain heat; at 4'50" the bean surface turns yellow, the grassy smell completely disappears, entering the dehydration stage, reduce heat to 140 degrees, adjust damper to 4;
At 4'50" dehydration is complete, reduce heat to 140 degrees; at 8'32" the bean surface shows ugly wrinkles and dark streaks, the toast smell clearly turns to coffee aroma, which can be defined as the prelude to first crack, and at this point one must listen carefully for the sound of the first crack point; at 8'37" first crack begins, reduce heat to 80 degrees, open the damper fully to 5 (adjusting heat requires great care, not so low that there is no crackling sound), develop for 1'50" after first crack, drop at 195.3 degrees.
This Front Street Guatemala Flor de Dios washed coffee has relatively pronounced citrus acidity, a juicy acidic feel, rich floral notes, pleasant sweetness, medium body, and a slight caramel and smoky note in the finish; overall it is clean, mild, smooth in texture, balanced in taste, and lively and varied in layering.
05丨Brewing Analysis
Recommended brewing method: Pour-over
Grind size: (Japan Fuji Royal R440) 3.5
V60 dripper, 15g coffee, water temperature 91 degrees
Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15
Stages: Pour with a small stream to 125g and pause, then slowly pour to 225g
Total time: about 1 minute 50 seconds
BG grind 4R
Sweetness: ☆☆
Acidity: ☆☆☆
Bitterness: ☆
Other drip extraction suggestions:
French press, recommended grind size 3.5-4, water temperature 91°C
AeroPress, recommended grind size 2.5, water temperature 90°C
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The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
