El Salvador Santa Rita Flavor Profile: El Salvador Coffee Varieties and Prices

Brewing Santa Rita as Pour-Over

Weigh out 15 g of coffee and grind to a medium setting (a Fuji ghost-tooth grinder at #4 works well). Set up a V60 dripper and heat the water to 88-89°C. Begin with a 30 g bloom and let it pre-infuse for 27 seconds. Pour again to 105 g and pause. Once the water level has dropped roughly halfway, resume a slow pour until you reach 225 g in total, then discard the tail end of the brew. The water-to-coffee ratio is 1:15 and the whole extraction should finish in about 2:00.

Product Information

Shelf life: 90 days
Net weight: 227 g
Packaging: bulk coffee beans
Roast level: roasted coffee beans
Origin: El Salvador
Roast degree: medium roast

Processing Method

Washed process.

About Yellow Bourbon

Yellow Bourbon is a variety whose cherries ripen to a yellow color rather than red. It was first identified in Brazil, where it is still grown most widely today. It is generally believed to have descended from a cross between a red-fruited Bourbon and a yellow-fruited Typica line known as "Amerelo de Botocatu," which later mutated. Yellow Bourbon is regarded as one of the finest varieties in existence. Whereas ordinary Bourbon cherries move from green to yellow to red as they mature, Yellow Bourbon cherries stay yellow throughout. When it is grown at high elevation and dried as a natural (sun-dried) process, Yellow Bourbon delivers a truly exceptional cup.

El Salvador Santa Rita Yellow Bourbon Washed SHG EP

Country: El Salvador
Estate: Santa Rita Estate
Region: Santa Rita
Grade: SHG
Score: 94 points - Coffee Review, February 2012

Santa Rita Estate sits in the northern part of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range, at an elevation of roughly 5,000 feet. Santa Ana Volcano (Volcán Santa Ana in Spanish) lies in southwestern El Salvador, in Santa Ana Department; it is the country's highest peak, rising to 2,362-2,381 meters (7,749 feet). The estate is also a model operation for coffee production in El Salvador.

Variety: Yellow Bourbon
Flavor: wheatgrass, roasted nuts, maltose

About El Salvador Coffee

El Salvador is one of the smaller countries in Central America. Its coffee tends to be light-bodied, aromatic, pure and slightly acidic, and it is prized above all for its excellent balance, which has made it a Central American specialty. It carries acidity, bitterness and sweetness in equal measure.

Along with Mexico and Guatemala, El Salvador is one of the region's major producers, and it competes with its neighbors for the top one or two spots in Central America. High-grown coffees from here have uniformly large, full-bodied beans with a rich, mild flavor. As in Guatemala and Costa Rica, Salvadoran coffee is graded by altitude, and higher elevations yield better coffee. There are three altitude grades: SHB (strictly high grown) for high altitude, HEC (high grown central) for medium-high altitude, and CS (central standard) for low altitude. The best-known brand is Pipil, the Aztec-Mayan word for coffee, and it has been certified by the Organic Certified Institute of America.

Tasting Notes

The cup shows wheatgrass, roasted nuts and maltose, with a smooth, milky creaminess, rounded acidity, brown sugar sweetness and the sweet impression of hazelnut chocolate.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If the Yellow Bourbon in this Santa Rita lot caught your attention, the variety is also a specialty in Brazil, where it first appeared. FrontStreet Brazil Queen's Estate Yellow Bourbon comes from Mogiana, close to South Minas, where the fertile red volcanic soil feeds the trees enough nutrients to build a full, generous aroma. This rare yellow mutation of Red Bourbon tastes cleaner and fruitier than its ancestor; medium roasted and brewed as pour-over, moka pot or espresso, it shows a sugarcane sweetness that few other origins offer, alongside fruit and chocolate notes.

For a classic Brazilian cup built on balance rather than fruit, FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon is a textbook single origin. Cerrado is a well-known Brazilian growing region prized for high-quality beans, and this lot is the common red Bourbon of South America. Medium roasting brings out rich aromas of creamy peanut, toasted bread, caramel and hazelnut, with a rounded body, low acidity and a light bitter finish - and it works just as well in a pour-over, moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon or French press.