Salvadoran Coffee Bean Origins Introduction: These Familiar Faces of Salvadoran Coffee Varieties

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FrontStreet Coffee - Introduction to Salvadoran Coffee

El Salvador can produce very high-quality coffee. Its Bourbon variety coffee sits at one end of the coffee spectrum, with a clean taste, slightly acidic flavor, excellent balance, and classic "Central American coffee" characteristics. It has the mellow aroma of chocolate, with notes of grapes and cherries, and can serve as a substitute for Brazilian coffee as an espresso base.

Coffee grown at high altitudes has high density and superior quality, which is a key factor in the excellence of Salvadoran coffee. Of course, El Salvador also produces large quantities of ordinary-quality, low-altitude coffee to meet market demand.

Salvadoran coffee once had a poor reputation for years due to its unstable social environment. Agriculture was the industry most severely affected by revolution and war. If conflict cannot be avoided, it takes several years for a farm to recover and rebuild.

In El Salvador, coffee trade, like the government, is controlled by a landlord class, with a few wealthy families operating most farms. El Salvador has a distinct political class system, and in this environment, lower-level coffee farmers and coffee workers have no motivation to produce high-quality coffee.

Fortunately, democratic movements and decades of civil war have greatly changed this situation. The quality of small-batch coffee from more high-quality small and medium-sized farms has begun to improve; we are delighted to see that coffee from different small farms has begun to develop its own unique flavors.

El Salvador's natural environment is suitable for coffee growth - soil, altitude, climate - possessing most of the natural conditions for producing high-quality coffee. More importantly, it also has a delicious natural hybrid variety - naturally hybridized from traditional Bourbon, Pacas, and Catuai.

El Salvador mainly cultivates Bourbon, Typica, and Pacas coffee varieties. Pacas is a Bourbon variety with bright floral characteristics and a mellow taste.

Quality coffee beans have complex aromas of brown sugar, (sometimes plum) butter, and toffee, with a long molasses aftertaste. Complex flavors and sweetness are fully integrated, with a mellow, silky mouthfeel.

Knowledge Point: Like Guatemala and Costa Rica, Salvadoran coffee is graded according to altitude - the higher the altitude, the better the coffee.

In Summary

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