What is the Water-to-Coffee Ratio for Pour-Over Brewing of Nicaragua Finca Mamamina Natural Process Pacamara?

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Nicaragua Mierisch Family Finca Mamamina Pacamara 19 Screen Natural Process

Finca Mamamina Story Introduction

This Nicaraguan Pacamara coffee comes from Finca Mamamina, owned by the Mierisch family.

The Mierisch family owns a total of nine estates and has been cultivating coffee since 1908, with over 100 years of history. The family consists of 9 estates, with 8 located in Nicaragua: San Jose, Limoncillo, Escondida, Milagros, Placeres, Los Altos, Mama Mina, and Suspiro, and one estate located in Honduras at Cerro Azul.

In 2017, a "Lemon Tree Estate" coffee was also from the Mierisch family. The Lemon Tree Estate cultivated the Java Nica variety in 2008 and won the runner-up position in the Cup of Excellence (COE) competition.

The family's estates have won numerous Cup of Excellence awards.

Finca Mamamina, covered in volcanic ash and grown using shade cultivation methods, produces high-quality Nicaraguan coffee. It has been recognized by OCIA (Organic Crop Improvement Association) as high-altitude premium organic coffee. Its flavor is rich and layered; upon entry, you can immediately perceive the aroma of black berries, with notes of blackberry and dark plum accompanied by citrus peel fragrance. The overall flavor is solid, with a silky, clean sweet taste.

Pacamara Coffee Variety Introduction

Pacamara is a hybrid variety artificially cultivated in El Salvador in 1958, with parents being Pacas and Maragogype. It combines the advantages of both but surpasses them! It is pure and gentle, full-bodied and smooth, with lively acidity, rich flavor, and a surprisingly long aftertaste. It has both the excellent taste of the Pacas variety and inherits the large bean size of Maragogipe. The beans are at least 70%-80% the size of Maragogipe, with 100% reaching 17 screen size and 90% reaching 18 screen size. The average bean length is 1.03 cm (compared to regular beans at approximately 0.8-0.85 cm), with an average width of 0.71 cm (compared to regular beans at approximately 0.6-0.65 cm), and a thickness of 0.37 cm, resulting in full, round beans. Pacamara's name comes from the combination of the first four letters of its "parents": Paca + mara = Pacamara.

At the 2005 El Salvador Cup of Excellence, Pacamara stunned everyone. Among the top ten, Pacamara beans remarkably took second, fifth, sixth, and seventh places!

In 2007, the Pacamara variety won double championships at both the Guatemala and El Salvador Cup of Excellence competitions. From then on, Pacamara became unstoppable on the award-winning path, consistently occupying top positions in major competitions, and internationally recognized as a rising star variety comparable to Geisha.

Just in the Guatemala Cup of Excellence alone, Pacamara sat on the championship throne for 7 out of 10 years from 2008 to 2017.

Due to Pacamara's extraordinary performance in competitions, in 2017, the BOP (Best of Panama) international competition committee decided to create a separate category for the Pacamara variety.

However, despite its remarkable success, this bean still has drawbacks: Pacamara has high requirements for soil, water, climate, environment, and altitude, with low yield and poor resistance to leaf rust disease. Therefore, its cultivation popularity is not high.

To this day, although Pacamara is no longer particularly rare, it remains an uncommon bean in the market. Especially, Pacamara from Guatemala and El Salvador is considered superior, with many international admirers, making it even more rare to reach domestic markets.

Natural Process Introduction

The natural process is the oldest and most original method for processing coffee beans. The process involves pouring harvested coffee fruits into large water tanks, where ripe, full fruits sink to the bottom, while underdeveloped or overripe fruits float to the surface. After removing these floating beans, healthy coffee fruits are placed on patios for direct sun drying, reducing moisture from 60% to 12%-15%. Finally, a hulling machine removes the hard, dry outer skin and pulp, completing the entire processing of the green beans.

(↑ Selecting coffee fruits) (↑ Outdoor sun drying)

The natural process can enhance berry and tropical fruit flavors, with mild fruit acidity. However, traditional natural processing sometimes produces negative flavors, such as earthy or over-fermented notes.

Today, the natural process is becoming popular again, even becoming one of the important processing methods for competition-grade coffee beans. This change comes from the use of improved African raised beds. Raised beds not only avoid ground moisture, animal feces, and earthy flavors but also allow fruits to be in a good air convection environment, resulting in more uniform drying. Farmers regularly turn the beans, allowing them to gently absorb the sweetness of the pulp, making the flavor increasingly rich.

Roasting Suggestions/Analysis

This coffee variety is the large-bean Pacamara, with relatively large particles and high density, and new season beans have higher moisture content. During the roasting process, heat absorption is slower, but the Maillard reaction process is faster, with the yellowing point at around 5 minutes. For the first roast, you can try using a slightly higher bean-drop temperature, such as 200°C, with relatively higher heat intensity, then gradually reduce the heat as needed during roasting: after the beans enter the yellowing point, reduce the heat to extend the dehydration time, allowing the large beans to dehydrate thoroughly; from the end of dehydration until the first crack, you can maintain medium heat or slightly increase it to accelerate the Maillard reaction time and ensure pressure before the first crack; before signs of the first crack appear, appropriately reduce the heat to avoid scorching the bean surface. With this operating method, the coffee's dehydration time is relatively extended, with a temperature increase rate of 6-8 degrees every thirty seconds, while still allowing entry into the first crack between 8.5 to 9.5 minutes, preserving more floral and fruity aromas and maintaining clean, bright acidity. It is generally recommended to drop the beans between the dense phase of the first crack and the end of the first crack, around medium roast.

Cupping Flavor Description

Flavor: Upon entry, you can immediately perceive the aroma of black berries, with notes of blackberry, black currant, dark plum, accompanied by orange peel fragrance. The overall flavor is solid.

Brewing Analysis

Today, FrontStreet Coffee introduces common hand-brewing techniques for Pacamara coffee: V60 three-pour method

Segmented extraction, dividing all brewing water into three injections

Suitable for light roast, medium-light roast, and medium roast coffee beans

Using V60 dripper

Increasing bloom time or the number of water breaks can enhance the richness of the coffee's taste.

The segmented extraction method of three-pour brewing

Advantages: More layered than single-pour methods, can clearly distinguish the front, middle, and back-end flavors of the coffee. The method involves increasing the water amount after each bloom, typically pouring water when the coffee liquid is about to drop to the powder layer surface, using small, medium, and large water flows for three extractions.

Disadvantages: Has relatively high requirements for water flow rate and volume.

FrontStreet Coffee's Pacamara Hand-brewing Parameter Suggestions

Using a V60 dripper can enhance the layered flavor of hand-brewed coffee, making it richer and cleaner; perfectly expressing the bright, uplifting aroma of the Pacamara variety.

15g of coffee, water temperature 89-90°C, grind BG 5R (64% pass rate through Chinese standard 20-mesh sieve), water-to-coffee ratio close to 1:15-16

Technique: 27g water for bloom, bloom time 30s. Using hot water from the pour-over kettle, draw circles clockwise centered in the middle of the dripper, start timing when brewing begins, pour water to 27g, then stop pouring and wait 30 seconds before the first pour.

For the first pour, draw circles like before, but you can slightly slow down the speed, accelerating a bit when reaching the outer circle, stop pouring at around 1:15 seconds. When the liquid level drops by 1/3, pour again. For the second pour, concentrate on the center, ensuring the water flow doesn't hit the connection between coffee powder and filter paper to avoid channel effects. End extraction at around 2:05 seconds. The tail end can be discarded (the longer the time, the more astringency and rough texture will increase.

Segments: 30-125-230g

Important Notice :

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