Dear coffee subscribers,
It is Christmas time and to celebrate the holiday I have picked out three coffees that pair very well with all the food, cakes and chocolate we are about to consume over the next weeks. Two of the coffees are from very small lots and picked out exclusively for you. The third coffee I have chosen is one of our Christmas coffees this year, from the farm Kiahia in Kenya.
Los Pirineos 1st & 4th bag
Flavour notes: Dark chocolate, winey & red fruits
Producer: Diego & Fabiola Baraona
Harvest: February 2021
Origin: Tecapa, Usulutan, El Salvador
Process: Honey
Cultivar: Pacamara
Pacamara is always an interesting cultivar as it was released to farmers around El Salvador before it was a stable cultivar. It means you will get different outcomes when you plant the seeds from existing plants which means you can find really great tasting ones and some that are not so tasty. For many years our friend and coffee farmer Gilberto Baraona planted a great selection of Pacamara on his farm and he was able to get numerous top 10 placements at the El Salvador Cup of Excellence with his Pacamara before he passed away. Fortunately his children are carrying on his legacy and have produced two beautiful lots of Pacamara that we purchased this year.
Both lots are honey processed and I find them to have subtle fruity flavours of fermentation from the honey process along with a pronounced«Pacamara flavour.» A complex and intense coffee with the chocolaty cocoa-bean character commonly found in El Salvador.
Caballero 2nd & 5th bag
Flavour notes: Dark chocolate, red apples & orange peel
Producer: Marysabel Caballero & Moises Herrera
Harvest: February 2021
Origin: Chinacla, la Paz, Honduras
Process: Washed
Cultivar: Pacamara
This is another Pacamara cultivar, but grown across the boarder from El Salvador in Chinacla, la Paz, Honduras by our dear friends Marysabel Caballero and Moises Herrera.
Although it is grown only a few hours drive from Los Pirineos, this Pacamara is really different in flavour. Maybe because of the growing conditions, but it might also be that it is a different type of Pacamara. In 2018 we won the Pacamara category in the Nordic Roaster Competition with the Pacamara coffee from the Caballeros and it helped us win the overall competition. I believe it was because of the exceptional sweetness that this coffee displays along with the interesting Pacamara flavours that helped us win. This year, the Pacamara from Marysabel and Moises was a bit more subtle in the flavour profile. I find it to have a sweet flavour of orange peel with subtle notes of red apples. It also has a rich mouthfeel with chocolaty notes similar to the Catuaí cultivars that they are so well known for.
Kiahia Christmas edition 3rd & 6th bag
Flavour notes: Winey, blackberries & blackcurrant
Producer: James Mugumo Munyiri
Harvest: December 2020
Origin: Nyeri, Kenya
Process: Washed
Cultivar: SL28 & SL34
Right before the Covid-19 pandemic hit I had been traveling to Kenya for a few years in order to see if we could find some smaller coffee estates we could buy coffee from. The goal was to to see if there were some potential producers we could work with long term, like we do in Central- and South-America. Although I am still searching a bit in Kenya, I finally managed to buy something that I think is of exceptional quality from a small estate. Unfortunately I have not been able to visit Kiahia estate personally yet but I could not help buying this coffee when I cupped it as it was so intense and fruity. The 10 hectare family farm is owned by Mr. James Mugumo Munyiri and is located on the highly productive eastern slopes of Aberdare.
There are only SL 28 and SL 34 cultivars planted on this farm which is probably why the coffee is so elegant and fruity. Most of the trees were planted in 1959 and some were planted in 1970. Thanks to our friends at Kahawa Bora we were able to finally buy an estate coffee that can compete with the qualities we get from the cooperative societies in Kenya. In fact this was my favourite Kenyan coffee that we bought in 2021.
Hopefully we will be able to go visit Mr. James Mugumo Munyiri at Kiahia estate soon and hopefully also buy more of his beautiful coffees in the coming years.
Thank you for reading and for subscribing to our coffees. We hope you enjoy the coffees and learning from our monthly videos. If you need some brewing tips, visit our website.
Happy holidays from all of us at Tim Wendelboe.