Roast Approach: Guatemala Acatenango Finca El Mirador Pacamara Washed

Today's coffee that we are going to approach is a fresh crop (2025) from Finca El Mirador in the Acatenango region of Guatemala. The farm sits at an elevation that ranges from 1500-1550 meters above sea level.  This washed coffee a pacamara varietal.  Pacamara is a hybrid between the Pacas and Margojipe varietals.  The beans are known for their large screen size, mostly in the range of 19-22 screensize.  Pacamara is known both for its seed size, as well as for being a very tricky coffee to roast.  If you talk to other roasters, you'll find an assortment of theories about how to roast pacamaras, and what you may expect to find in the cup.  We hope this exploration will help you to find new insight into how you approach this dynamic coffee.

Arrival QC:

The coffee arrived in October, 2025.  The coffee is washed processed with a range of screen sizes between 18-22, reflecting the large nature of the pacamara seeds.  The coffee has a normal moisture of 11.3% and a moderate density of 1.15 g/m. This is a very important piece of information.  Because of the large screen size, most roasters assume that the seeds are low density and require gentle treatment.  However, when analyzed, we can see that the seeds are of a moderate density that is inline with other specialty quality coffees from this region of Guatemala.

The sample roast was preformed on an Ikawa with the roast profile that can be found on our website.

The Roaster:

For these roasts, I'll be using a Proaster 1.5 kilo drum roaster hooked up to natural gas.  Batch size is 400g, approximately 35% of roaster capacity.  I've used a small batch size on this roaster to get closer to mimicking the gas power that you might find on a larger production roaster.  It must always be mentioned that each roaster is different.  The type of probe, placement of probe, and batch size will all influence the way in which bean probe temperatures are registered in a roaster.  With that said, don't read too much into the exact temperatures, but look more closely at the theory behind the approach, time spent in different development periods, and rate of rise to get a better idea of how to translate this profile over to your own machine. 

The Goal:

Typically in the Roast Approach I bring you three different roasts for the coffee, where each roast emphasizes a different overall heat application.  I started exploration of this coffee with my typical roast profiles and then played around with changing the charge temperature.  Changing the charge temperature can drastically change the overall momentum for a coffee roast, creating momentum that will shorten time spent in each phase.  

For this Roast Approach, you'll see a roast with a charge temperature of 380 degrees and a roast with a charge temperature of 405 degrees.  On the roaster I'm using, this represents a low charge temperature and a moderately high charge temperature.  

Hopefully this will provide you with the background you need to confidently approach this coffee in your own roasting adventures.

If you would like to learn more about my four phase approach to roast profiling, check out my “Roast Approach: Roast Strategy” blog.

Below is a comparison chart of the two roasts for you to follow along with. Each segment is measured in seconds with drying from charge through 305, Maillard from 305-350, caramelization from 350-first crack, and post crack development time measured from first crack through the end of the roast.  Typically, I mark first crack at 385 degrees, which is the average first crack temperature that occurs on my roaster.  However, this coffee entered first crack at around 381 degrees.  

The Approach: Roast 1

When discussing pacamara roasting with other roasters, I found the most common approach was to treat the seed as though it were low density and needed gentle heat application.   

This roast began with a charge temperature of 380 degrees, which is moderately low for the machine I use.  The roast began with a moderate gas application.  After turn around, gas application was increased to 100% through the early Maillard stage.  At 340, just as caramelization was about to begin, gas application was reduced to 60%.  Gas application stayed at 60% until the near end of the roast.  First crack occurred at 381 degrees, which is significantly earlier in the roast than I have experienced with other coffees on this machine.  Additionally, this early first crack time was consistent across the 10 roasts that I conducted.  

At first crack, the coffee takes off with a quick short jolt of energy, then subsides.  It is important to know that this is a short bit of energy and heat reductions at first crack will leave you with inadequate energy to continue through the roast.  At around 396-7 the coffee begins to take off with exothermic heat energy that will build through the finish of the roast.  In this roast, I reduced gas application to 40% at 389 degrees and then cut all gas at 400 degrees, 2 degrees before my anticipated end temperature.  

The coffee roast ended at 402 degrees with a roast loss of 14.63%.  In comparison to other similar density coffees roasted on the exact same profiles, this was nearly 1-2% percentage more roast loss than average.  The roast also measured a 98.3 on the Agtron scale, when measured with a Difluid Roast Analyzer.  This is a very high Agtron reading, which indicates a very light roast.  Typically, with a roast loss of over 14%, I'd expect to see a much lower Agtron reading closer to 80 (closer to a medium roast).  The fact that this coffee had an early first crack, high roast loss, and high Agtron reading (very light in color) leads me to believe that there is something special going on with the chemical compounds in the seed.

On the cupping table, this coffee had a fragrance of pear, caramel, honeycomb and lime blossom.  The floral notes were soft and most apparent on the dry fragrance.  The flavor had many herbal qualities, which pacamaras are known for.  The herbaceous quality was full of lemon balm and thyme.  Notes of orange, honey, and coconut were strong through the cup with a citric and tartaric acidity.  Toasted hazelnut rounded out the finish of the cup.  The body was medium, silky and creamy.

The Approach: Roast 2

In my discussions with other roasters, I couldn't find a single roaster that recommended a high heat approach to roasting a pacamara.  This made sense when you couple the pacamara's reputation for having an intense acidity and the reputation for being low density.  This made me think though.  If the assumption of pacamaras being low density was false, then possibly the idea that it needs a soft heat was also incorrect.  

This roast began with a charge temperature of 405 degrees.  This did raise some concerns for me that there may be some scorching or tipping (roast defects) from the drum being too hot.  I followed the same gas application strategy as with Roast 1.  Gas application was at 75% until 260, then up to 100%, and brought back down to 60% at 340 degrees through caramelization.  Both roasts also finish right around 402 degrees.  Every adjustment was done exactly the same as with Roast 1, except this roast had a higher charge temperature.

With an increased charge temperature, momentum will build throughout the roast.  If you were to lay one roast graph of a high charge temperature over the roast graph of the lower charge temperature, you'd find that the graphs grow further apart as the roast proceeds.  You'll find that even with the same gas application adjustments at the same points in the roast, the higher charged roast will move faster and faster through the roast phases.  

The roast ended at 402.1 degrees.  Roast loss was 14.38% (again, higher than typical) and the Agtron reading was 101.2 (again, incredibly high).

On the cupping table, this coffee had a unique fruit quality in the fragrance and aroma.  The fragrance had notes of honey, pear, white peach, and chamomile florals.  In the cup, the caramel sweetness of Roast 1 was replaced with a sugarcane sweetness.  Notes of lemon balm, red berry, red currant and white peach with hints of fresh watermelon juice.  The body was a medium body with silky and creamy mouthfeel.

The Takeaway:

This may be the most thought provoking coffee I've roasted in an extremely long time.  I roasted 10 different roast profiles of this coffee.  Each roast had an extremely high roast loss and an extremely high Agtron reading.  I don't think I've ever seen these two factors occur in a coffee.  It leads me to think that pacamaras may have a slightly different balance of sugars and acids than their bourbon-derived counterparts.  I reached out to colleagues within the industry for more research on the chemical compound breakdown of various varietals, however it appears that this topic is in the early phases of research.  

What does seem clear about this coffee is that it is a bit of a rule breaker.  Roast loss will be more than anticipated, coffee will be lighter than you expect.  I feel like this coffee has an incredibly dynamic acidity that can be unlocked with higher heat application.  Pacamaras have a reputation for being very acidic with strong citrus acidity.   In roasts that I did that had a bit more development, the coffee had a one dimensional acidity and a tendency towards a hollow-ness to the body.  I found the best approaches to be the roasts mentioned, with either the caramel-honey sweetness and rounded acidity with the lower charge temperature or the vibrant fruit character and complex acidity with the higher charge temperature and lower end temp.

Happy roasting!