El Salvador – Carlos Lemus – Finca La Victoria – Pacamara – Natural – Green

Taste: A very bright, clean flavor with a hint of lemon. Roasting further into second crack may bring out more of the chocolate notes.

Roast: Because of the large size of these beans, they require a lower charge temp (320 – 330 degrees) to fully develop the best profile. We roasted this one to Full City, just into second crack. It was very bright and citric. Letting it go into SC a few seconds longer will bring out more of the sweetness of these pillowy beans.

About: One of the less common varietals, Pacamara coffees are renowned for their unique flavors and aromas. A relative newcomer to the family of Arabica coffee plants, Pacamara is a hybrid of two Central and South American varietals – Pacas and Maragogype. ​Pacamara was first produced in El Salvador at the Salvadoran Institute for Coffee Research in 1958.

Chalatenango is not as well-known a region for coffee production as Santa Ana in El Salvador, but senior green-coffee buyer Piero Cristiani has spent years investing in and developing relationships with the community of smallholder farmers there in order to source some of the best, most dynamic coffees we’ve tasted. The average farm held by these producers is between 1–3 manzanas in size (1 manzana is slightly smaller than a hectare), and most yield fewer than 20 full-size bags of exportable coffee annually. They grow predominantly Bourbon, Pacas, and Pacamara variety coffees, and until the 2010s the producers with whom we’re working had all been selling their lots on the local market for a low price, without any way to access better buyers.

Piero and his green-buyer’s associate, Alberto Reyes, have worked closely with these families for several years in order to build a solid foundation, being sure to bring them higher prices and reward their exceptional quality. Piero purchases from these producers in parchment and has the coffee custom-milled, which takes some of the burden of processing off the farmers. These super-small lots are bagged in smaller increments (35 kilograms) and affectionately called “pequeños,” but don’t let their size fool you: These are exquisite coffees grown by committed, passionate farmers, many of whom are seeing specialty prices for their lots for the first time in the area’s history.

Carlos Mauricio Lemus Landaverde is a young producer who inherited his father’s 4-hectare farm after his father, Jose Maria Lemus, passed away in a car accident. Carlos is following in his father’s and family’s footsteps with regards to quality, though, and was awarded as the ninth-place winner in the 2017 El Salvador Cup of Excellence competition. After picking, depulping, and sorting, coffee is put on raised beds to dry for 15–18 days.