What Does El Salvador Santa Rita Taste Like and How to Brew El Salvador Coffee

Yellow Bourbon

Yellow Bourbon, named for its yellow ripe fruit, was first discovered in Brazil and is still grown there today. It is generally regarded as a mutation arising from a cross between red-fruited Bourbon and a yellow-fruited Typica variant known as "Amerelo de Botocatu." Yellow Bourbon ranks among the finest varieties. While ordinary Bourbon shifts from green to yellow to red as it ripens, Yellow Bourbon keeps its yellow color throughout. Grown at high altitude and dried in the sun, it delivers exceptional flavor.

El Salvador Santa Rita Yellow Bourbon Washed SHG EP

Country: El Salvador

Estate: Santa Rita Estate

Region: Santa Rita

Grade: SHG

February 2012 Coffee Review: 94 points

Santa Rita Estate sits in the northern reaches of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountains at roughly 5,000 feet. Santa Ana Volcano (Volcán Santa Ana) lies in southwestern El Salvador, in Santa Ana Department, and is the country's highest peak at 2,362 meters (7,749 feet). The estate is also a model for coffee production in El Salvador.

Variety: Yellow Bourbon

Flavor: Wheatgrass, roasted nuts, maltose

El Salvador is one of Central America's smaller countries. Its coffee is light-bodied, aromatic and pure, with a gentle acidity and a balance that is its defining strength—an acidity, bitterness, and sweetness held in equal measure, and a Central American specialty in its own right.

Alongside Mexico and Guatemala, El Salvador belongs to the Aztec-Maya group of producers and contends for one of the top two spots in Central America. High-altitude origins yield large, evenly sized beans with a rich, mellow flavor. As in Guatemala and Costa Rica, Salvadoran coffee is graded by altitude—the higher the elevation, the better the coffee. Three grades are used: SHB (Strictly High Grown) for the highlands, HEC (High Grown Central) for the mid-highlands, and CS (Central Standard) for the lowlands. The finest brand is Pipil, the Aztec-Mayan word for coffee, and it has been certified by the Organic Certified Institute of America.

The flavor profile brings wheatgrass, roasted nuts, and maltose together with the smoothness of milk-cream fat, a rounded acidity, and the sweetness of brown sugar and hazelnut chocolate.

Hand Brew Method for Santa Rita

15g of coffee, medium grind (Fuji #4 burr grinder), V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89°C. Begin with a 30g pour and bloom for 27 seconds. Pour to 105g and stop, then wait until the water level drops halfway before slowly pouring to 225g. Avoid the tail end. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, extraction time 2:00.

Shelf Life: 90 days

Net Weight: 227g

Packaging: Bulk coffee beans

Roast Level: Roasted coffee beans

Origin: El Salvador

Roast Degree: Medium roast

Processing Method: Washed processing

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you enjoy the balanced, gently sweet profile that El Salvador and Brazil share, FrontStreet Brazil Cerrado is a classic single-origin starting point. This pulped-natural Cerrado comes from a region long celebrated for high-quality beans, and it is a red Bourbon of the kind common across South America. Roasted to a medium level, it gives off the rich aromas of creamy peanut, toasted bread, caramel, and hazelnut, with a rounded body, no sharp acidity, and a faint bitter undertone. It works equally well as pour-over or in a moka pot, espresso SOE, siphon, or French press.

For fruitier sweetness, look to FrontStreet Brazil Queen Estate. Grown in Mogiana near South Minas, where the fertile red volcanic soil feeds the fruit into a full, sweet aroma, the estate's rare yellow Bourbon—a natural mutation of red Bourbon—carries a cleaner fruit character. Brewed as pour-over, moka, or on a home machine, it shows a sugarcane sweetness found in few other regions, along with fruit and chocolate notes.

Brazilian beans also anchor many of FrontStreet's espresso recipes. Because low acidity, balanced body, and an approachable price make Brazil a natural fit for blends, it appears in the classic, premium, black cocoa, and commercial espresso blends alike, where it contributes chocolate and cream aromas, a gentle sweet-sour-bitterness, and a balanced structure that helps keep extraction stable.