Description
Our beloved pacamara washed is back again and this time from one of the greatest Salvadoran specialty coffee producers of all times, Ignacio Gutierrez.
THE ROAST
Pacamara can be famous of being citric in the lighter roast but in the medium roast it turns as if roasted cacao and coffee were fused together. Pacamara washed from Los Pocitos has a solid creamy body with cacao and baked brown sugar undertones. It’s a great coffee for a thick espresso shot or for a pour-over. Its thick body makes it syrupy and with a lingering cacao aftertaste.
We recommend brewing this one for espresso (double shot) using 18.5g in a double basket. For pour over methods we recommend a 16:1 water to coffee ratio, with water below boiling point.
THE BEAN
Pacamara descends from a beautiful lineage of two beans that compose the most culturally and genetically important groups of Arabica coffees in the world.
The origins of this exotic bean can be traced back to 1958 to the Institute of Coffee Studies in El Salvador. As the result of experiments, Pacamara was made crossing Pacas (a bourbon mutation discovered also in El Salvador) and Maragogype. The amalgamation of both varieties resulted in a sweeter and heavier body than bourbon bean with such deep and great flavor notes that often than not dominates cupping events such as Cup Of Excellence.
Pacamara thrives best in higher altitude with cooler climate. It is resistant to wind and its tree size makes it easier to be harvested in steep terrain, making it a very suitable for the Salvadoran geography of high mountainous areas like Chalatenango, where Los Pocitos is located.
This pacamara is washed processed. After harvest, the coffee was washed to remove the cherry and fruit mucilage covering the bean, and then spread on raised beds at Ignacio’s farm and turned regularly to allow slow, even drying of the beans for 7 to 10 days. Read more about the different processing methods here!
FARM STORY
Ignacio Gutierrez, or Nacho as per his nickname, earned his family living by growing tomatoes and wood trees prior to transitioning into coffee production in 2005. He started off with a small piece of land with just 500 coffee trees but ever since Nacho’s hard work and dedication has been awarded by winning Cup of Excellence in 2011, 2013, 2015 (first place with record breaking score with a coffee lot from Los Pocitos), and again in 2017. Nacho has reinvested each year’s COE winnings back into improving and expanding his farms and today operates three small farms (Los Pocitos, La Roxanita, and San Nicolas). All three small farms owned by Ignacio are in close proximity in the northern region of El Salvador, in Chalatenango.
The elevation at the farms range from 1,600 to 1,700 meters and the farms are planted with Pacas, Pacamara, Gesha and SL28. Nacho works his farms with his family group, and they have mastered all three drying processes, washed, honey and natural.
