Dear coffee subscriber,
November has arrived and your subscription coffee has just left our roastery. This month, all three coffees we are sending out are from the same farm, Los Pirineos in El Salvador.
We have been buying coffees from Gilberto Baraona since 2010. Two years ago he sadly passed away, but his children are now running the farm and they are doing a great job. It’s now the second year in a row we have been buying great quality coffees from them.
In his later years, Gilberto was obsessed about planting different coffee cultivars and finally we are able to offer a small selection of the best tasting ones.
Read more about Gilberto and his work here
Los Pirineos Pacamara – 1st & 4th bag
Flavour notes: Dark chocolate, tropical fruits and stone fruit
Producer: Fabiola & Diego Baraona
Harvest: February 2022
Origin: Tecapa-Chinameca, Usulutan, El Salvador
Process: Honey
Cultivar: Pacamara
Pacamara is always an interesting cultivar as it was released to farmers around El Salvador a bit early 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 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.
Los Pirineos Ethiopian «Konka» – 2nd & 5th bag
Flavour notes: Milk chocolate, stone fruits & apples
Producer: Fabiola & Diego Baraona
Harvest: February 2022
Origin: Tecapa-Chinameca, Usulutan, El Salvador
Process: Semi-washed
Cultivar: Ethiopian
This is an Ethiopian cultivar that is grown at Los Pirineos that they have named «Konka.» I suspect it is supposed to be named Konga like the washing station in Yirgacheffe in south-Ethiopia ( but that is not so important. )
This coffee does not really taste like an Ethiopian coffee though. Normally I would expect it to be floral and citric when I see the word Ethiopian on a coffee but this coffee has a subtle stone fruit and apple like character with sweet milk chocolate notes. A fun fact is that Gilberto gave me seeds from these trees to plant on my farm Finca el Suelo in Colombia, and so far it tastes very different there with more of a classic Ethiopian character.
Still, the Konka from Los Pirineos is a really sweet and tasty coffee with a mouth watering sweetness and acidity.
Los Pirineos Geisha – 3rd & 6th bag
Flavour notes: Milk chocolate, floral & tangerine
Producer: Fabiola & Diego Baraona
Harvest: February 2022
Origin: Tecapa-Chinameca, Usulutan, El Salvador
Process: Semi-washed
Cultivar: Geisha
Gilberto started planting Geisha from a handful of seeds many years ago. In fact he started with just a few trees in his garden in San Salvador before transferring the trees and planting more on his farm. This was because years ago it was really hard to come across good Geisha seeds.
Since then, we have been waiting patiently for the trees to produce enough so we could buy some and last year we were able to buy 60kg of this Geisha that we sold to restaurant Noma. Fortunately, we just got enough to be able to send out to our 3 / 6 bag subscribers this year which means you will be able to taste this coffee too. I have tasted this coffee for a few years now and it has a very distinct and unique orange and tangerine flavour that reminds me of eating orange flavoured milk chocolate. A unique and different style of Geisha coming from El Salvador.