Characteristics, Flavor Description, Processing Methods, Variety, and Taste Profile of El Salvador Pacamara Coffee Beans

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El Salvador: The Land of Volcanoes

El Salvador, known as the "Land of Volcanoes," is the smallest country in Central America. Its reputation in specialty coffee growing regions has surpassed its life expectancy. As you can imagine, the quality of beans from here naturally won't be far behind!

El Salvador Coffee Quality and Classification

El Salvador coffee, alongside Mexico and Guatemala, ranks among the production countries of the Arabica variety, and is competing with other countries for the top one or two positions in Central America. Coffee from highland areas consists of uniformly large, medium-sized coffee beans with a rich, mild flavor.

Like Guatemala and Costa Rica, El Salvador's coffee is graded according to altitude - the higher the altitude, the better the coffee. It is divided into three grades based on elevation: SHB (strictly high grown) = highland, HEC (high grown central) = mid-highland, CS (central standard) = lowland. The best brand is Pipil, which is what the Aztec-Mayan people called coffee. It has been recognized by the Organic Certified Institute of America. El Salvador's coffee is a Central American specialty, characterized by light body, aroma, purity, and slight acidity.

Premium Coffee Varieties

Like Guatemala and Costa Rica, El Salvador's coffee is graded according to altitude - the higher the altitude, the better the coffee. The best brand is Pipil, which is what the Aztec-Mayan people called coffee. It has been recognized by the Organic Certified Institute of America.

Another rare coffee is Pacamara coffee, which is a hybrid of Pacas coffee and Maragogype coffee. The best production area for this coffee is located in western El Salvador, adjacent to Santa Ana, which is near the border with Guatemala.

The Pacamara variety is an artificially cultivated breed of Pacas and Maragogipe. It was first cultivated by Salvadoran researchers in 1958. Pacamara is an excellent variety rarely achieved through artificial selection, surpassing its parent plants. It perfectly inherits the advantages of its parent plants - having both the excellent flavor of Pacas and the large bean size of Maragogype. The beans are at least 70-80% the size of elephant beans, with 100% reaching 17 screen size and 90% reaching 18 screen size. The average bean length is 1.03 cm (normal beans are about 0.8-0.85 cm), average width is 0.71 cm (normal beans are about 0.6-0.65 cm), and thickness reaches 0.37 cm, with full, round shapes.

The most distinctive feature of this variety is its lively, sophisticated acidity, sometimes with biscuit aroma, sometimes with fruit flavors, and excellent body and mouthfeel. The best quality comes from El Salvador and Guatemala. Don't underestimate El Salvador's coffee production. At its peak, it was once the world's fourth-largest coffee-producing country, but decades of civil war nearly crippled the coffee industry. Fortunately, the war has stopped in recent years, and the coffee industry has regained vitality.

The only benefit the civil war brought to El Salvador was that farmers let their fields lie fallow, failing to catch the popular Catimor sun cultivation train of the past two decades. Therefore, it preserved ancient Bourbon and Typica varieties. In other words, El Salvador still uses the most traditional shade-grown cultivation methods, which has positive significance for coffee flavor enhancement.

In 2005, El Salvador's Pacamara hybrid made a splash at the Cup of Excellence, confusing many international cuppers who didn't know how to score it. Unexpectedly, this hybrid variety not only broke the existing boundaries of coffee richness but also expanded the visibility of El Salvador coffee.

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee suggests brewing El Salvador coffee, using El Salvador Urasan Estate as an example.

Parameters: V60/1:15/90℃/Grind size BG 5R/Brewing time 1'47"

Method: 26g water for bloom, 30 seconds. Slowly pour water from the center to 124g in segments. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, use a slightly larger water flow to pour until reaching 230g to complete the brewing.

Flavor: Entry of plum, grapefruit, and citrus acidity, with nutty, chocolate, and genmai tea aftertaste, sugarcane sweetness, and noticeable juice-like body.

FrontStreet Coffee 2018 El Salvador Santa Ana Urasan Estate Honey Process Bourbon

Fresh roasted single-origin beans

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