San Jose (Pacamara = Big Beans) El Salvador

We are delighted to bring this absolute showstopper of a coffee from El Salvador with tasting notes of papaya, melon, and jelly baby sweets consisting of rounded acidity, and complexity.

The history of the farm traces back to 1905 when Jose Rosa Pacas bought his farm in the Apaneca-Ilamatepec Mountain range - Finca San Rafael. A still-active volcano in the west of the country, Ilamatepec does not only provide a rich and fertile soil, but also a microclimate with dry winters and warm summers in a country dominated by tropical weather. Jose planted coffee trees from the Bourbon varietal, a few generations later, coffee still runs in the family blood.

THE PACAS VARIETAL

In 1958 Fernando Alberto Pacas Figueroa, a descendant of Jose, noticed an unusual shrub growing among bourbon coffee trees in Finca San Rafael.  After consulting with friends and a thorough investigation with university researchers, it was determined that this was a natural mutation from bourbon coffee trees, resulting in a new coffee varietal. The researcher in charge could not remember the name of the farm but remembered the name of the family. So he tagged the trees “Pacas” - the legend says that is how the name of the varietal was chosen! Nowadays, the Pacas varietal is most known for its cross with the Maragogpe varietal, called Pacamar.