extra.gscheid El Salvador Chalate Pacamara 250g - whole beans

Sometimes you want it extra.gscheid: in this series we present very special, small coffee lots that we roast on our lab roaster in 600g batches – each roast yields just two 250g bags. More hobby than business, really, but for these coffees we give everything. Something truly special, and therefore: extra.gscheid.

Chalatenango – the "valley of water and sand" – is El Salvador's coolest and northernmost coffee region. For a long time the country's west took the spotlight, until in 2007 a Pacamara from precisely this region won the Cup of Excellence and turned everything upside down. Chalatenango has been firmly on the specialty map ever since – and now we know exactly why.

Finca Cerro Negro, with 2 hectares and around 6,000 coffee trees, is a typical micro farm, run by Luis Alonzo Hernandez. As a child on his grandmother's farm he would never have believed he'd become a coffee farmer one day – back then he hated the work there. Ten years later, coffee caught him after all. His dream: planting more Pacamara and, some day, Gesha.

The Pacamara – this cross of Pacas and Maragogype – brings everything we love it for at 1800m: oversized beans, incredible complexity and a cup profile in a league of its own. Washed processing: depulped after harvest and dry-fermented for 8–16 hours, then washed and dried on patios for 6–8 days. Classically clean, but anything but boring.

In the cup we first meet a deep blackcurrant, followed by an intriguing rhubarb note that gives this coffee real character. Fine citrus notes join in and round the profile off beautifully towards the finish. Clear and clean in the cup, yet lively. Simply a textbook Pacamara!

.ORIGIN: Chalatenango, El Salvador
.FARM: Finca Cerro Negro
.FARMER: Luis Alonzo Hernandez
.VARIETY: Pacamara
.ALTITUDE: 1800m
.PROCESSING: washed (dry-fermented, patio-dried)
.CUP PROFILE: blackcurrant, rhubarb, citrus – clean & zesty