Why Pour-Over Coffee from El Salvador's Finca Las Nubes Natural Pacamara is Expensive_How Much Does Pacamara Cost

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El Salvador Finca Las Ninfa Natural Process Pacamara Coffee

Introduction to Finca Las Ninfa:

Ricardo Valdivieso is the fourth-generation heir of his family, which has been locally renowned for cultivating and processing the Pacamara coffee variety. The farm, named Las Ninfa (meaning "Nymph Farm" or "Fairy Farm"), is a sister farm to Santa Leticia. Both farms have very high production and beautiful scenery.

The farm was founded in 1870 by the famous politician Francisco Menendez Valdevieso, who was a local native, once served as a general and president of El Salvador, and was also the founder of El Salvador's education system. For over a century, the farm has been inherited and managed by family members. Ricardo is the great-grandson of founder Francisco. Besides coffee and protected forests, the farm also contains many Mayan-era ruins. Ricardo's daughter utilizes these ancient sites to operate a tourist eco-lodge at Santa Leticia and provide related activities.

The farm is located in the town of Apaneca, near the eastern coffee landmark landscape of El Salvador, Santa Ana Volcano, also known as Ilamatepec. El Salvador's mountainous regions extend from north to east, and all volcanoes are active. The climate and geographical conditions here are very suitable for coffee cultivation. Fertile volcanic soil, stable Pacific sea breezes, appropriate altitude, and distinct rainy and dry seasons make this a paradise for plants.

Introduction to Pacamara Coffee Variety:

Pacamara is a hybrid variety artificially cultivated in El Salvador in 1958, with parents being Pacas and Maragogype. It combines the advantages of both varieties while surpassing them! It is pure and gentle, rich and smooth, with lively acidity, full 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 beans, with 100% reaching 17 mesh or above and 90% reaching 18 mesh or above. The average bean length is 1.03 cm (compared to regular beans at about 0.8-0.85 cm), average width is 0.71 cm (compared to regular beans at about 0.6-0.65 cm), and thickness reaches 0.37 cm. The beans are full and round. Pacamara is formed by combining the first four letters of its "parents": Paca + mara = Pacamara.

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

In 2007, the Pacamara variety won both the Guatemala and El Salvador COE championships. Since then, Pacamara has been unstoppable on the award-winning path, consistently ranking among the top in major competitions, and is internationally recognized as an emerging variety comparable to Geisha.

Just in Guatemala's COE, Pacamara has 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 Best of Panama (BOP) international competition committee decided to create a separate category for Pacamara varieties.

However, despite its remarkable success, this bean variety still has drawbacks: Pacamara has high requirements for soil, climate, environment, and altitude, with low production 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 enthusiasts pursuing it, making it even more difficult to obtain domestically.

Introduction to Natural Process:

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

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

The natural process can enhance berry and tropical fruit flavors, with gentle 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. Besides avoiding ground moisture, animal feces, and earthy flavors, the raised beds also allow fruits to be in a good air convection environment, making drying more uniform. Farmers regularly turn the beans, allowing them to gently absorb the sweetness from the pulp, making the flavor increasingly full-bodied.

Roasting Suggestions/Analysis:

This coffee variety is the large-bean Pacamara, with relatively large beans and high density. New season beans inherently have higher moisture content. During the roasting process, heat absorption is relatively slow, and the Maillard reaction process is quite fast. The color change point occurs around 5 minutes. For the first roast, you can try a slightly higher bean drop temperature, such as 200°C entry temperature, with relatively high heat. During roasting, gradually reduce heat as needed: after beans enter the color change point, reduce heat to extend dehydration time, allowing the large beans to dehydrate thoroughly; from dehydration completion to first crack, appropriately maintain medium heat or slightly increase heat to accelerate Maillard reaction time and ensure pressure before first crack; at the first sign of first crack, appropriately reduce heat to avoid bean surface scorching. Under this operating method, the coffee's dehydration time is relatively extended, with temperature increases of 6-8 degrees every thirty seconds, while still maintaining normal entry into first crack between 8.5 to 9.5 minutes, preserving more floral and fruity aromas and maintaining clean, bright acidity. It's generally recommended to drop beans between the end of the first crack and its conclusion, achieving medium roast level.

Cupping Flavor Description:

Flavors of sangria, Concord grapes, blueberries, with moderate balance.

Brewing Analysis:

Today we introduce FrontStreet Coffee's commonly used method for pour-over Pacamara coffee: V60 three-stage pour method.

Segmented extraction, dividing all brewing water into three injections:

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

Uses V60 dripper.

Increasing bloom time or number of pour interruptions can enhance coffee flavor intensity.

Three-stage pour segmented extraction method:

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

Disadvantages: Requires higher standards for water flow rate and volume.

FrontStreet Coffee's Pacamara Coffee Pour-over Parameter Suggestions:

Using a V60 dripper can enhance the layered flavor of pour-over coffee, making it richer and cleaner; perfectly expressing the elevated bright aroma of Pacamara varieties.

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

Method: 27g water for bloom, bloom time 30s. Hot water from the pour-over kettle should be poured clockwise in circles centered on the V60 dripper. Start timing when brewing begins, pour to 27g, then stop pouring and wait 30 seconds before the first pour.

For the first pour, circle similarly to before but slightly slower. When reaching the outer circle, speed up slightly. Stop pouring around 1:15 seconds. Wait for the liquid level to drop by 1/3, then pour again. The second pour should concentrate on the center, with water flow avoiding the area where coffee powder meets filter paper to prevent channel effects. End extraction around 2:05 seconds. The tail section can be discarded (the longer the time, the more astringency and roughness 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