How is the Pour-Over of El Salvador Finca Aguacate Honey Process Coffee? _ Iced Pour-Over Tutorial for Finca Aguacate

El Salvador Coffee Variety - Pacamara

The Chalatenango region, home to Finca Aguacate (the Avocado Estate), was El Salvador's prime coffee territory in 2017: 15 of the 24 award-winning estates on the country's COE list came from this region.

The estate reaches 1,800 meters into the clouds and takes its name from the avocado trees that cover its slopes. Last year, the beans that placed 17th in the COE international rankings were Finca Aguacate's honey-processed Pacamara — good sweetness, a tapestry of spices and fruit sweetness, jasmine florals, and charming tropical flavors as it cools, full and juicy.

Flavor Characteristics

Elegant, fresh jasmine florals; graceful tropical fruit; sweet-tart apricot, mango, and peach; full and juicy.

Review

For this honey-processed El Salvador coffee, we first ground the beans and took in their sweet aroma. Honey process leaves some fruit on the bean during drying, so the fruit character comes through strongly. We brewed with roughly 90°C water at a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio in three pours, using a slightly larger flow on the final pour. The cup shows caramel, fruity tones, a full body, and a sweet aftertaste — an excellent choice.

How to Brew El Salvador Coffee [Finca Aguacate Honey Process] Well?

FrontStreet Coffee pour-over reference: Weigh out 15g of Finca Aguacate Honey Process coffee and grind medium. The grounds should be slightly coarser than table salt. We use a BG grinder at setting 5R (60% standard sieve pass rate), 89°C water, and a V60 dripper.

Pour hot water from your kettle in clockwise circles centered on the middle of the dripper, starting the timer as you begin. Within 15 seconds, bring the brew to 30g, then stop pouring. At the 1-minute mark, make the second pour, again circling clockwise from the center. Keep the stream off the seam where the coffee meets the filter paper to avoid channeling.

As you reach the outermost ring of coffee, leave one circle of margin, then pour ring by ring toward the center. At 2 minutes 20 seconds the brew should reach 220g — done.

Japanese Ice Pour-Over [Finca Aguacate Honey Process]

FrontStreet Coffee ice pour-over reference for Finca Aguacate Honey Process:

El Salvador Finca Aguacate Honey Process, medium roast, BG grinder setting 5M (67% standard sieve pass rate)

20g of coffee, 150g of ice, 150g of hot water. Set the water temperature 1°C above the normal pour-over recommendation of 90°C. Grind normally at Fuji 3.5, but a half setting finer for ice pour-over — Fuji 3.

Bloom with 40g of water for 30 seconds.

Segmented pouring: first segment 60g of water, second segment 40g. Use a relatively thin but tall water column, agitating vigorously so the grounds tumble fully — but keep the liquid level from rising too high or striking the filter paper at the edges.

Total extraction time is approximately 2.5 minutes (about the same as a normal 20g brew).

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you're just getting into pour-over and want one dripper that's practical, easy to master, and good-looking, the answer is almost always the Hario V60. Its designer, Hario, was founded in Tokyo in 1921 as a maker of heatproof laboratory glassware; in 2004 the company redesigned the V60 prototype into the familiar form and launched it a year later, named for its 60° cone angle and "V" shape. The cone and single large aperture let you, the brewer, control flow speed entirely — which is why the V60's fast extraction brings out layered aromatics, lively acidity, sweetness, and tea notes, perfect for floral-fruity coffees.

Coffees that shine on a V60 include the FrontStreet Guodingding Cooperative (classic Yirgacheffe: jasmine, lemon, berries), the FrontStreet Natural Huakui (lush tropical fruit), the FrontStreet Strawberry Sugar (a Geisha-style blend with delicate florals and sweet fruit), and the FrontStreet Mozart (raisin-honey processed Costa Rican with raisin, blueberry sweetness, and osmanthus-rose florals). Whichever you choose, the V60's quick drainage will show off their floral and fruity character at its best.