Introduction to El Salvador Coffee Regions: Flavor Profile and Pour-Over Characteristics

Despite being the smallest country in Central America, El Salvador has numerous coffee-producing regions. In recent years, the market has seen some high-quality Salvadoran specialty coffees that have left a lasting impression. Now, please follow FrontStreet Coffee as we explore the world of Salvadoran coffee together.

The Coffee Story of El Salvador

FrontStreet Coffee's research reveals that coffee cultivation in El Salvador dates back to the mid-18th century, and its coffee industry is intricately linked to the country's development.

During the colonial period, indigo, as a natural dye, was El Salvador's first agricultural product, generally obtained by processing the leaves of a plant called "Jiquilite." Indigo production occupied most of El Salvador's time throughout the 18th century, but with the European Industrial Revolution driving the synthetic dye industry, this traditional production process quickly fell to defeat.

According to records, coffee was introduced to El Salvador between 1779 and 1796, with the first coffee trees planted on the land of two farmers from Ahuachapán. Although coffee entered El Salvador as early as the 18th century, it wasn't until the mid-19th century that the government decided to take measures to support and promote coffee cultivation in the country. From the 1930s to 1940s, driven by credit policies favorable to coffee growers, the entire coffee industry developed strongly, with coffee accounting for over 90% of El Salvador's agricultural exports.

Since 1857, coffee cultivation also expanded throughout El Salvador's territory, starting from Ahuachapán, then spreading to Santa Ana and Sonsonate, then extending to western San Vicente, the Berlín mountain area, and near Volcán Chaparrastique in San Miguel. Today, large areas of coffee plants are found throughout El Salvador and have become the main agricultural product for many local farmers.

The modernization of El Salvador's coffee cultivation began with high price incentives in the 1950s. Farmers first adopted shade cultivation by interplanting coffee trees with other crops, while also beginning to use fertilizers and appropriately increase planting density to concentrate on improving productivity. Thus, in the mid-1970s, El Salvador became the world's fifth-largest coffee producer and fourth-largest coffee exporter, with harvests reaching up to 5 million quintals.

However, from the 1980s to 1990s, El Salvador experienced a civil war. Many individual farmers were pressured by guerrillas and military forces, coffee sales and exports were forcibly nationalized, and farmers had to stop investing in their farms. This caused a sharp decline in El Salvador's coffee production and prices between 1997 and 2001. According to ICO data, the country's coffee production dropped by over 34% during this period. In 2013, coffee leaf rust began to spread nationwide. Only 3% of coffee trees planted in El Salvador were rust-resistant varieties, so the 2014 harvest season's production dropped by nearly 60%.

It wasn't until 2014 that the agricultural management department, led by Minister of Agriculture and Livestock Lic. Orestes Ortéz, planned to reactivate coffee cultivation, creating a dedicated CENTA coffee department to strengthen scientific and technological support. This department has a team of 80 technical personnel, guided by Salvadoran coffee cultivation expert Dr. Adán Hernández, not only providing fungicides to prevent coffee tree rust problems but also cultivating new rust-resistant varieties for farmers, allowing coffee farmers to renovate their plantations and improve quality and yield.

Salvadoran Coffee Regions and Varieties

According to statistics, El Salvador currently has over 130,000 hectares of coffee area, of which about half are low-altitude coffee plantations, 33% belong to medium-high altitude coffee, and the remaining 16% are high-altitude coffee. Among them, 85% of growers are small farmers with less than 7 hectares, while only a small portion of planting area exceeds 7 hectares.

El Salvador has nine major coffee-producing regions: Apaneca, Apaneca Llamatepec, El Balsamo-Quetzaltepec, Cacahuatique, and Santa Ana in the southwest; Chalatenango, Chichontepec, and Metapan in the north-central region; and Tecapa-Chinameca, scattered along river valleys.

Although Typica was the first Arabica variety widely planted in El Salvador, due to leaf rust, most farms later switched to Bourbon coffee in the 19th century. By the mid-20th century, Bourbon mutated into Pacas, which was traced by ISIC and vigorously promoted for cultivation. Today, Bourbon and its variant Pacas have become the main varieties popular in Salvadoran coffee plantations. Bourbon accounts for over 60% of cultivation, while Pacas also accounts for nearly a quarter of the country's coffee production.

However, compared to these two common coffee varieties, the representatives that have entered El Salvador's Cup of Excellence with high-quality flavor are Pacamara, which has gained increasing reputation in recent years. As a large-sized coffee bean, it was hybridized and released by the Salvadoran Coffee Research Institute (ISIC) from Pacas and Maragogype (a Typica variant from Brazil). This variety has both the excellent taste of Pacas and inherits the large bean size characteristic of Maragogype. In terms of flavor, it has lively and bright acidity, sometimes with biscuit notes, sometimes with juice-like texture, and excellent thickness and mouthfeel.

FrontStreet Coffee: El Salvador Pacamara Coffee Beans

Region: Sonsonate Izalco region

Estate: Finca Ataisi Estate

Grade: SHG

Altitude: 1800 meters

Variety: Pacamara

Processing: Washed

Flavor: Nuts, chocolate, cream, strawberry jam, passion fruit

Salvadoran Coffee Flavor Characteristics

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Dripper: V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Coffee-to-Water Ratio: 1:15

Grind Size: Fine sugar consistency (80% pass-through rate with China #20 standard sieve)

Pour the coffee grounds into the V60 dripper, wet the coffee bed with twice the amount of water as the grounds to form a dome and let it bloom for 30 seconds. Then use a small water stream to pour in circles from inside to outside to 125g for the first pour. When the coffee bed drops to half the dripper's height, continue with the same fine water stream for the third pour to 225g, until all coffee liquid has filtered through, then remove the dripper. The total time should be about 2 minutes.

FrontStreet Coffee tastes this Pacamara coffee through pour-over extraction: the entrance is very delicate and smooth, clear and gentle fruit acidity slides across the tongue surface, quiet and gentle like all Pacamara characteristics. The middle section has fresh wild berry fruit acidity and hazelnut-like nutty aroma. The tail section has obvious caramel sweetness, with a long-lasting delicate sweet aftertaste and persistent pleasant afterglow.

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

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