How Fine to Grind Pacamara Black Honey Coffee Beans from El Salvador's Santa Leticia Estate for Pour-Over Brewing

Professional coffee knowledge exchange, more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat public account: cafe_style)

El Salvador Santa Letcia Estate Pacamara Coffee Black Honey

Country of Origin: El Salvador

Region/Estate: Santa Letcia Estate

Coffee Variety: Pacamara

Growing Altitude: 1620-1730 meters

Processing Method: Black honey processing, sun-dried

Green Bean Grade: SHG

Santa Letcia Estate Information Story Introduction:

Estate Introduction

This coffee comes from Santa Letcia Estate in El Salvador, located near the town of Apaneca in Ahuachapan province, managed by third-generation coffee farmer Ricardo Valdivieso and his family. In 1870, Ricardo Valdivieso's grandfather purchased this land and named it after his wife "Leticia."

As the birthplace of Pacamara, El Salvador has never lacked excellent coffee estates. Santa Letcia Estate is located in the Apaneca volcanic region of western El Salvador, with an average altitude of 1400 meters. The Pacamara produced here uses honey processing, with explosive fruit aroma but extremely high balance between acidity and bitterness. The taste is soft and long-lasting, with a full body and excellent sweetness.

Santa Leticia Estate (Finca Santa Leticia) was founded in 1870. Its founder, Francisco Menendez, was an important figure in Salvadoran history. He not only made significant contributions to establishing El Salvador's education system but also became president in 1886, leading the country toward freedom and democracy by drafting a constitution during his tenure. After his death on June 22, 1890, the Salvadoran people designated this day as Teacher's Day to commemorate him. The estate is now inherited and operated by his descendants.

Santa Leticia Estate is situated in the Apaneca volcanic region of western El Salvador, located on the Central American ecological corridor stretching from Mexico to Panama. Covering nearly 100 hectares, the entire estate uses shade-grown cultivation, playing a vital role in local biodiversity conservation. According to statistics, the estate hosts over 120 species of migratory birds and 259 species of insects, producing 2,500 kg of fresh oxygen for the Earth daily.

Pacamara Coffee Bean Variety Introduction:

Pacamara is a hybrid variety artificially cultivated in El Salvador in 1958, with parent varieties being Pacas and Maragogype. It combines the advantages of both while surpassing them! It is pure and gentle, rich and smooth, with lively acidity, full flavor, and a surprisingly long aftertaste. It has the excellent taste of the Pacas variety while inheriting the large size of Maragogipe beans. 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 0.8-0.85 cm for regular beans), average width is 0.71 cm (compared to 0.6-0.65 cm for regular beans), with a thickness of 0.37 cm, giving the beans a full and rounded shape. Pacamara is named after combining the first four letters of its "parents": Paca + mara = Pacamara.

At the 2005 El Salvador Cup of Excellence (COE), Pacamara amazed everyone. Among the top ten, Pacamara beans impressively took second, fifth, sixth, and seventh places!

In 2007, the Pacamara variety won the double championship of both Guatemala and El Salvador COE. From then on, Pacamara became unstoppable on the award-winning path, consistently occupying top positions in major competitions and internationally acclaimed as an emerging variety comparable to Geisha.

Just in Guatemala's COE alone, Pacamara sat on the championship throne for 7 out of 10 years between 2008-2017.

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

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

Today, although Pacamara is no longer particularly rare, it is still not a very common bean in the market. Especially, Pacamara from Guatemala and El Salvador is considered superior, with many international pursuers, making it even rarer to reach domestic markets.

Honey Processing Method Introduction:

What is Honey Processing?

The honey processing method originated in Costa Rica. Simply put, honey processing is the method of processing coffee after removing the skin and pulp, leaving the mucilage and parchment. The key to distinguishing different honey processing methods lies in the handling choices for this remaining mucilage: the proportion of mucilage retained and the drying speed and method.

Yellow Honey (White Honey): About 40% of mucilage is removed; drying requires the most direct heat absorption, receiving the most sunlight for drying, taking about 8 days to reach stable moisture content.

Red Honey: About 25% of mucilage is removed; compared to yellow honey, drying time is longer, reducing direct sunlight exposure time, even using shade nets, lasting about 12 days.

Black Honey: Almost no mucilage is removed; drying takes the longest time, lasting at least 2 weeks, using coverings to avoid too much sunlight, preventing drying too quickly, allowing more thorough sugar conversion.

Roasting Suggestions/Analysis:

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

Cupping Flavor Description:

Flavor characteristics: Dried longan, gentle fruit aroma, sweet, slightly mellow, clean, very rich texture

Brewing Analysis:

Today, FrontStreet Coffee introduces commonly used techniques for pour-over Pacamara coffee: V60 three-stage water injection method

Segmented extraction, dividing all brewing water into three injections

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

Using V60 filter cup

Increasing bloom time or number of water pauses can enhance the richness of coffee taste

Three-Stage Water Injection Segmented Extraction Method

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

Disadvantages: Higher requirements for water flow rate and volume.

FrontStreet Coffee [Pacamara Coffee Pour-Over Parameter Suggestions]

Using V60 filter cup for brewing can enhance the layered flavor of pour-over, making it richer and cleaner; fully expressing the upward, bright aroma of the Pacamara variety.

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

Technique: 27g water for bloom, bloom time 30s. Draw circles clockwise with the hot water in the pour-over kettle centered on the middle of the filter cup. Start timing when brewing begins, inject water to 27g, then stop injection, wait 30 seconds for the first injection.

For the first injection, draw circles as before, slightly slower, when reaching the outer circle, speed up a bit, stop water at around 1:15 seconds, wait for liquid level to drop by 1/3, then inject water again. The second injection focuses on central injection, water flow should not hit the connection between coffee powder and filter paper to avoid channeling effect. End extraction at around 2:05 seconds, tail section can be discarded (the longer the time, the more astringency and rough texture will increase).

Segments: 30-125-230g

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473