El Salvador Los Pirineos Pacamara Yellow Honey Coffee Beans - Cup of Excellence Winner

El Salvador Los Pirineos Pacamara Yellow Honey

Los Pirineos Estate is well known in specialty coffee, not only for its 8 Cup of Excellence awards in El Salvador but for the passion owner Gilberto Baraona brings to varieties and processing methods. With more than 90 different coffee varieties and 8 different processing methods on the property, Los Pirineos has become something close to an experimental farm that roasters love to work with.

The estate occupies the highest elevations of the Tecapa Volcano in southeastern El Salvador and takes its name from the Pyrenees between France and Spain. Gilberto Baraona's family has farmed it since 1890, more than a hundred years.

Los Pirineos enjoys excellent microclimate conditions, slow cherry maturation, good rainfall and fertile volcanic soil. The processing station sits between two mountains with good sun and ventilation, ideal for even drying.

Over the past five years Gilberto has replanted 200,000 coffee trees, investing heavily in better cultivation, harvesting and processing. Since 2012 he has added raised beds with shade netting for a gentler, longer dry. Alongside the original Bourbon, Typica, Pacas and Pacamara, he planned to bring 10 new varieties into production by 2017, among them Orange Pacamara, Geisha, Heirloom Bourbon, Laurina, Java and Kenya, while at altitudes below 1,200 meters he grows newer hybrids including Castillo Naranjal, Costa Rica 95, Lempira, Obata and Casiopea.

All cherries are picked by hand, with only ripe fruit collected, and after harvest they are screened again before processing to remove underripe or overripe beans. All pulp and skin from processing is recycled and, with the help of California red worms, turned into organic compost that goes back to the coffee trees. Los Pirineos holds Rainforest Alliance certification and was one of the first estates in El Salvador to receive it, and all rainwater on the property is filtered naturally.

Gilberto's Honey Processing

Gilberto takes a distinctive approach to honey processing. At the depulping stage he keeps all the mucilage and puts the beans directly onto African raised beds. Yellow honey, red honey and black honey are distinguished mainly by how they are dried.

Take this Pacamara Yellow Honey. After the pulp is removed it goes onto African raised beds under full sun, but for the first three days it must be turned every twenty minutes, then 10 turns a day until moisture reaches 12%, giving a very sweet yellow honey profile.

Red honey skips the turning in the first three days, allowing a more intense fermentation that turns the beans red and makes them stick together, after which they get 10 turns a day. Black honey is different again: in the first three days it is turned every 20 minutes but under shade, then 10 turns a day. Black honey dries more slowly and develops chocolate flavors.

El Salvador Los Pirineos Pacamara Yellow Honey

Country of Origin: El Salvador

Region: Berlín, Usulután; Tecapa-Chinameca

Estate: Los Pirineos

Estate Owner: Gilberto Baraona

Processing Station: El Beneficio Los Pirineos

Area: 150 hectares

Altitude: 1,550 meters

Variety: Pacamara

Processing Method: Yellow Honey

Awards: 8-time Cup of Excellence winner in El Salvador, 5th place in 2012

Certification: Rainforest Alliance Certified

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations

V60 filter cup, 15g of grounds, water temperature 90°C, grind setting 3, water-to-coffee ratio close to 1:15.

30g of water for the bloom, bloom time 30s.

Staged brewing: pour to 110ml, wait until the water level drops to one third, then slowly pour to 225ml and stop.

That is 30-125-225g.

Other Drip Extraction Suggestions

French Press: recommended grind setting 3.5-4, water temperature 90°C

AeroPress: recommended grind setting 2.5, water temperature 90°C

Pour-over: grind setting 3.5, water temperature 91°C, or grind setting 3.5 at 90°C

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

What makes Los Pirineos compelling is the sheer range of varieties grown on one farm, and among that list Geisha is the one that has captured the most attention worldwide. FrontStreet Esmeralda Red Label Geisha, sold under the name Esmeralda Special, is the top of the line, grown at 1,600-1,800 meters with every lot required to cup above 90 points and drawn from a single plot; FrontStreet Esmeralda Green Label Geisha, originally called Private Collection, blends lots from several plots to show the estate's signature high-altitude Geisha character at a friendlier price. Both are washed, so they drink especially clean and bright.

If you want Geisha flavor at entry level, FrontStreet Boquete Geisha is the natural starting point, a washed Panamanian Geisha that offers the classic orange-blossom honey, oolong tea and fine fruit acidity at an accessible price. For a different origin entirely, FrontStreet Geisha Village Gold Label is the Gesha 1931 variety and makes up 10% of the farm's output, while FrontStreet Geisha Village Red Label is Gori Gesha, 15% of production and scoring 88 or above on the SCA scale. FrontStreet Genlana Gesha comes from a farm of roughly 700 hectares near the Yirgacheffe area, where the processing station was founded in 2014 and cherries are hand-picked and dried on raised beds for 14-20 days; a medium-light roast brings out citrus acidity, elegant ginger-flower aroma and a ripe-fruit sweetness.

Geisha is a dense, hard bean, so FrontStreet Coffee suggests a grind around a China standard #20 sieve at a 78% pass rate, close to fine caster sugar, with water at 91°C. A common recipe is 15g in a small Hario V60 at a 1:16 ratio, poured in stages: a 30g bloom for 30 seconds, a slow circular pour to 125g, a pause as the bed drains, then a final slow pour to 225g, for a total of about 2 minutes 10 seconds to 2 minutes 20 seconds. For an espresso version, a medium roast such as FrontStreet Genlana Gesha SOE works well at 20g of coffee, a 1:2 brew ratio and a 25-second extraction to yield 40g of liquid.