Los Pirineos Pacamara

US$17.58

A complex and intense Pacamara coffee with the chocolaty character commonly found in coffees from this farm.

Additional information

Weight	0.311 kg
Dimensions	15 × 7.5 × 23 cm
Cultivar	Pacamara
Flavour Notes	Dark chocolate, tropical fruit & stone fruit
Producer	Diego & Fabiola Baraona
Country	El Salvador
Region	Tecapa-Chinameca, Usulutan
Process	Honey
Harvest	February 2022
Roast Profile	Light Roast
Contents	Whole Coffee Beans
Bag Size	250g

Out of stock

In the recent years I have been really impressed with the quality of the Pacamara coffees produced by the team at Los Pirineos. Don’t get me wrong, I have always loved their Pacamara coffees, but I believe the quality from the trees and the processing have improved over the last years. I can’t recall having tasted a better lot of Pacamara from this farm, ever. Even though it is a honey processed coffee, it is not perceived as particularly “pulpy” in flavour. Instead the fruity flavours caused by the slight fermentation during drying, is so subtle and just adds a layer of complexity to this sweet and rich coffee.

I find this to be a complex and intense coffee with the chocolaty cocoa-bean character commonly found in coffees from this farm.

Pacamara is a crossing between Pacas and Maragogipe that can have very interesting cup profiles. 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 continue to produce top quality Pacamara coffees.

LOS PIRINEOS PRODUCTION PROCESS

Picking and sorting

All cherries are selectively picked by hand. Unripe and damaged cherries are removed by hand from the ripe cherries before processing.

Depupling, fermenting & washing

Coffee cherries are de-pulped before they are either semi-washed or honey processed at Los Pirineos. This lot is honey processed which means the parchment coffee was still covered with a layer of mucilage when it was put to drying.

Drying

The coffees we buy from Los Pirineos are all dried slowly on raised beds and most beds are covered with shade nets. During drying the coffees are raked throughout the day to ensure even drying. At night it gets covered to prevent condensation and the risk of the coffee gaining moisture in the drying process. Once the coffees are dried, they are stored in air tight grain pro bags before the they get milled and sorted on the farm. The coffees are also packed in vacuum packs on the farm before they are shipped to Norway.

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FILTER

We strongly recommend using the correct measurements and brewing techniques when you brew our coffees. Use a digital scale both to measure water and coffee in order to get consistent results, and we recommend using between 60 to 70 grams of coffee per litre (1000g) of water, depending on the brewing method, water quality and coffee used.

ESPRESSO

We strongly recommend using VST filter baskets. Both the 18g, 20g and the 22g basket is great for our coffee. The VST filters makes it a lot easier to extract the espresso properly which gives a lot more sweetness in the cup. They are also more or less identical to each other which makes it easy to be more consistent when brewing on several groups at the same time. You can buy the filters on our webshop, just make sure they fit your machine (ours fits all La Marzocco machines and machines with 58mm filter baskets). With the VST 18g filter basket, we recommend the following brewing parameters: 18-19g freshly-ground coffee, 25-35s brewing time, 35-38g of final brew liquid in the cup, 93°C-94°C brew water temperature.

Gilberto Baranoa

In 2020 our dear friend and pioneering coffee producer Gilberto Baraona sadly passed away. I got to know Gilberto in 2010 after purchasing his coffee for the first time through the Cup of Excellence coffee auction. Although his coffee was not among the top lots that year winning 30th place, it was by far my favourite at the auction, so I decided to bid and ended up buying the lot. A year later I visited don Gilberto on his beautiful farm Los Pirineos situated on top of the Tecapa volcano. We connected immediately and we both agreed that we wanted to work towards the same goal; making his coffee one of the best in El Salvador.

Gilberto was not afraid to go his own ways, always testing out new things on his farm. I loved his positive spirit, and his eagerness to experiment and improve everything on his farm. In the early years when I visited his farm we would focus a lot on discussing and experimenting on how we could improve his production techniques on the wet mill and improving his drying facilities. We were able to raise the quality of his coffees by tweaking both the washing and especially the drying process by introducing raised beds and shade drying. I remember leaving one year hoping Gilberto would invest in 10-20 drying beds so that he could process the small amounts of coffees we bought the way I liked it. The following year when I re-visited his farm, he had made a huge space on his farm where hundreds of drying beds were already full of coffee drying in the sun. It is one of many great examples of how he always went «all in» and was able to think big.

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Transparency

We buy coffee directly from Los Pirineos. They mill, pack and export their own coffee. The coffee is imported by ourselves directly to Norway. We have been buying coffee from Gilberto every year since 2010 and will continue to work with his children in the future years.

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Brewing guides

Browse our brewing guides to learn how to make great tasting coffee at home. No matter if you’re making french press, filter coffee, iced coffee or espresso – we’ll help you get the most out of your coffee.

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Los Pirineos Pacamara