Introduction to El Salvador Los Pirineos Estate

El Salvador Los Pirineos

El Salvador Los Pirineos is run by Gilberto Baraona and sits atop the Tepeca volcano in the Usulatan region, surrounded by the towns of Berlin, Santiago de Maria, and Joy. Cultivation began in 1890, and according to family accounts the original seeds came from Antigua, Guatemala.

The coffee here is divided into small and medium lots according to parcel and variety. The main varieties today are Pacas, Bourbon, and Pacamara. There is also a Procafe program that experiments with original, mutant, and hybrid varieties of coffee trees from around the world.

Los Pirineos is one of the pioneers in El Salvador to build its own micro-processing plant. The producers are still experimenting with post-harvest drying methods. One such experiment is a soaking method applied after the pulp and mucilage are removed. Processing this delicately preserves an elegant vanilla aroma, a subtle red berry acidity, and a rich nutty sweetness in the cup.

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Brewing Parameters

Pour-over: V60 dripper, Fuji R440 grind level 3.5, water temperature around 90°C

French press: Recommended grind level 4, water temperature 90°C

Siphon: Recommended grind level 4, water temperature 90°C to 91°C

AeroPress: Recommended grind level 3.5, water temperature 90°C

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Given how well Los Pirineos responds to immersion-style brewing, a French press is an excellent way to meet it. A French press is a full-immersion brewer with a metal filter, and because the water and coffee steep directly together, the resulting cup carries more oils and a heavier, fuller body. That also makes it a poor fit for anyone who dislikes sediment or fine particles in the cup.

Immersion brings the grounds into contact with hot water for a long time, so light roasts tend to give up high acidity that can bury the floral and fruity top notes. A medium or dark roast therefore suits a French press better, since it expresses sweetness and caramel-style flavors more clearly. For that reason, FrontStreet Coffee PWN Golden Mandheling is a natural match. As one of Asia's best-known specialty coffees, it goes through three hand selections plus one machine pass, leaving uniform, translucent beans. After a medium-dark roast the beans are large and carry dense notes of spice, caramel, cedar, and dark chocolate, and a French press extraction gives a full body with a satisfying layer of oils.

If you prefer a brighter, more perfumed cup, FrontStreet Coffee's Strawberry Candy is a good alternative. This Geisha blend is built from a Costa Rican honey-processed coffee and a washed Panama Geisha, combining the finest flavor characteristics of Central America, and in a French press it gives off rose, citrus, grape, and dried blueberry aromas; add milk and it turns into the scent of strawberry gummy candy.

To get the most out of either bean, use a coarse grind, the texture of coarse sugar or small gravel rather than fine sand. On an EK43s electric grinder that is about 10.5, and about 26 on a hand grinder. A grind that is too fine lets water move through the coffee too quickly, and in a French press fine particles can slip through the metal filter and leave a cup full of sediment. If you want more layered flavor you can grind finer, but shorten the immersion time accordingly to avoid over-extraction. A coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15, or 15g of coffee to 225g of water, produces a brew of roughly 1.1 to 1.2% concentration with a thicker, fuller flavor, which is a sensible place to start before adjusting the coffee or water to taste. For water temperature, if you have no thermometer, boil the water and let it stand for 2-3 minutes, adjusting for air temperature, to reach roughly 90°C. Because a French press takes all its water at once and there is no stirring to raise extraction during the steep, it sometimes helps to go 1-2°C hotter than you would for pour-over. Immersion time usually falls between 3 and 5 minutes; 5 minutes can be too long for a darker roast and turn bitter and astringent, while 3 minutes can be too short for a light roast to give up its flavor, so start with 4 minutes.

To brew, lift out the filter assembly and add the ground coffee to the press, pour in 15 times its weight in hot water, stir gently a few times, and set the plunger on top without pressing it down. After the coffee has steeped for 4 minutes, press the plunger slowly all the way to the bottom and pour the coffee out carefully so as not to disturb the grounds at the base of the carafe.