What are the Flavors of El Sunzita Washed Pacas from Santa Ana Region, El Salvador?

El Salvador Santa Ana Region | El Sunzita Farm Washed Pacas Flavor Profile

El Sunzita Farm belongs to Mauricio and his wife Mary, who received the land from their family. Mauricio's brother owns the large plantation El Sunza, which surrounds "El Sunzita" with 200 manzanas (140 hectares); in the past, El Sunzita's coffee was sent to El Sunza to be mixed with other coffee for sale.

Mauricio is an agronomist by profession. A few years ago he noticed something special: the farm's main variety is a Bourbon hybrid that exists nowhere else in El Sunza, yet it is his personal favorite. It accounts for 65% of the plantation and was later named by him "Hybrid from El Pasti." After identifying the variety, the couple decided to build their own independent coffee business. Although El Sunzita is only 16 manzanas (11.2 hectares), it has a beautiful nursery garden and a micro depulper, and their daughter and son have joined the operation—Mauricio manages the farm while Mary handles logistics.

Besides Hybrid from El Pasti, the farm grows Yellow Bourbon and Pacas. This year's lot is a washed Pacas.

Coffee Information

Variety: Pacas

Region: El Pasti, Santa Ana

Farm: El Sunzita Farm

Washing Station: Producer: Mauricio Ortiz & Mary Ortiz

Altitude: 1400 meters

Processing Method: Washed

Flavor Profile: Vanilla custard, pear, macadamia nut, creamy texture

FrontStreet Coffee's Recommended Brewing

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Grind Size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 3.5

Brewing Method: Coffee-to-water ratio 1:15 with 15g of coffee. First pour: 25g of water for a 25-second bloom. Second pour: up to 120g, then stop. When the water level in the bed drops to halfway, continue pouring slowly to 225g total. Extraction time around 2:00.

Analysis: The three-stage method clearly separates the front, middle, and back-end flavors. Because the V60's many ribs drain quickly, pausing the pour helps extend extraction time.

Flavor: Nut, toast aroma, apricot, caramel, cane-sugar sweetness, maple-syrup sweetness, solid body, cocoa, chocolate aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Washed processing is the traditional water-based method of preparing coffee: flotation, depulping, soaked fermentation to strip the mucilage, washing or further soaking, then drying and hulling. The long soak drives chemical changes inside the bean, consuming much of its fructose and glucose while increasing organic acids—so washed coffees keep more of the bean's own character while gaining bright fruit acidity and a clean, fresh profile. To taste washed processing at its most celebrated, try the FrontStreet Kenya Cherry Tomato: Kenya excels at double-washed processing, running an extra wash-and-soak cycle that presents the juice-like quality to the extreme, with cherry tomato, smoked plum, snow pear, black plum, and yellow-sugar aromas in a sweet-tart, juicy cup. For delicate florals, the FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Worka (Guodingding) Cooperative lot comes from a village where smallholder families pool their cherries for cooperative processing; its refined, clean profile, washed to maximize jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity, roasted medium-light, reveals green tea and honey notes across pour-over, cold brew, or espresso. And for a washed classic with famous balance, FrontStreet's Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 was born from washed processing itself—the island's short sunshine hours made removing skin, pulp, and mucilage before drying essential—producing translucent, low-defect beans that brew into pure hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel with nothing out of place.