El Salvador Santa Rita Estate Pour Over Data | How to Brew Santa Rita Estate Coffee

Pour-over Santa Rita

15g of coffee grounds, medium grind (Fujiyama serrated burr grinder #4), V60 dripper, water at 88-89°C. First pour 30g of water for a 27-second pre-infusion. Continue pouring to 105g, pause until the water level drops halfway, then slowly pour until reaching 225g total. Discard the final tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Product Information

Shelf Life: 90 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk coffee beans
Roast Level: Medium roast

Processing Method

Washed processing

Yellow Bourbon

Yellow Bourbon is a coffee variety whose cherries ripen to a yellow color. Originally discovered in Brazil, it is now grown mainly there. It is believed to be a mutation resulting from hybridization between red-fruited Bourbon and a yellow-fruited Typica variant called Amerelo de Botocatu. Yellow Bourbon is considered one of the most exceptional varieties. While regular Bourbon cherries typically turn from green to yellow to red, Yellow Bourbon cherries stay yellow. Grown at high altitude and processed as natural, Yellow Bourbon shows excellent flavor characteristics.

El Salvador Santa Rita Yellow Bourbon Washed SHG EP

Country: El Salvador
Estate: Santa Rita Estate
Region: Santa Rita
Grade: SHG
Rating: 94 points (Coffee Review, February 2012)

Santa Rita Estate is located in the northern region of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountains at approximately 5,000 feet altitude. Santa Ana Volcano (Volcan Santa Ana in Spanish) lies in southwestern El Salvador, in Santa Ana Department, and is the country's highest peak at 2,381 meters (7,749 feet). It is also a model estate for coffee production in El Salvador.

Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Flavor Notes: Wheatgrass, roasted nuts, maltose

El Salvador is one of the smaller countries in Central America. Its coffee is light-bodied, aromatic, pure, and slightly acidic, with exceptionally good balance as a defining characteristic of Central American coffees. It presents equal measures of acidity, bitterness, and sweetness.

El Salvador ranks alongside Mexico and Guatemala as a major producer in the region, competing for the top positions in Central America. High-altitude coffees feature uniformly large, full-bodied beans with rich, smooth flavors. Like Guatemala and Costa Rica, El Salvador grades its coffee by altitude: the higher the altitude, the better the coffee. Grades are divided into three levels: SHB (Strictly High Grown) for high altitude, HEC (High Grown Central) for medium-high altitude, and CS (Central Standard) for low altitude. The best brand is Pipil, the Aztec-Mayan name for coffee, which has been certified by the Organic Certified Institute of America.

The flavor profile includes wheatgrass, roasted nuts, maltose, smooth milk creaminess, rounded acidity, brown sugar sweetness, and hazelnut chocolate notes.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Since Santa Rita is built on the Yellow Bourbon variety that originated in Brazil, Brazilian beans are the natural place to go next. FrontStreet Coffee's Brazil Queen Estate Yellow Bourbon comes from Mogiana near Sul de Minas, where fertile red volcanic soil lets the cherries absorb abundant nutrients and develop a full aroma. Queen Estate grows the rare Yellow Bourbon, a natural mutation of Red Bourbon with a cleaner fruit character, and it delivers the fresh sugarcane sweetness other regions rarely show, plus fruit and chocolate notes, whether brewed as pour-over, in a moka pot, or on a home espresso machine.

If you prefer a classic Brazilian daily cup, FrontStreet Coffee's pulped natural Cerrado Red Bourbon is an excellent single origin. Cerrado is a well-known local region prized for quality beans, and this lot is the common South American Red Bourbon. Roasted medium, it shows rich creamy peanut, toast, caramel, and hazelnut aromas with a rounded, non-acidic cup and a light bitter finish, and it suits pour-over, the moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon, and French press.

Brazil's low-acid, balanced profile and approachable price also make it a first choice in many espresso recipes. The chocolate, nut, and cream aromas and the gentle sweet-sour-bitter balance add up to stable, consistent extraction, which is why FrontStreet Coffee's espresso blends, including the classic blend, the nutty specialty blend, and the balanced Black Cocoa blend, all build on Brazilian coffee.