Las Delicias, Santa Ana, El Salvador, 12 oz.

The Coffee... Las Delicias is owned and run by Ricardo Gonzalez and his family.  In the cup, the brute savory strength unique to Pacamara is tempered by a sweet fruitiness, and leads to characteristics of flowers, plum, dried fruit and a mouthwatering savoriness.

The Variety... The Pacamara variety is traditionally identified with El Salvador, and the best Pacamara coffees are still produced there today. In the 1930s, El Salvador was undergoing a renaissance of sorts in their coffee industry: Salvadoran coffees had gained renown on the world stage, particularly in Europe, for their extraordinary quality. Much of this was attributed to the Bourbon variety, which El Salvador had planted extensively on its volcanic slopes. One farmer in particular, Don Alberto Pacas, identified a particularly good strain of Bourbon which came to be known as “Pacas” after him. Pacas became one of the most important Bourbon strains in El Salvador. Later, in the 1950s, Pacas was crossed with the Brazilian “Maragojipe” variety, a finicky plant known as “The Elephant Bean” because of the large fruit and coffee beans it produced.

The Project... Aida Batlle calls her Pacamara selection “Los Luchadores,” which loosely translates as “The Heavyweights” because of the large bean size and heavy-hitting flavor of the Pacamara. This year, Aida introduced us to the Pacamara grown on the Las Delicias farm, a farm on the slopes of the very same Ilamatepec volcano that is home to Aida’s Finca Mauritania and Finca Kilimanjaro.  Las Delicias is on the eastern slope of the volcano, a unique microclimate. This side was dramatically affected by the surprise volcanic eruption in 2005 of Ilamatepec, and ash still covers the soil in this area.