Green Coffee Offerings : Central America : El Salvador |
||
View Our Current Salvadorian Coffees |
Upcoming Crop CommentsWe are down to the larger lots we had in the current crop and they are cupping strong. With new crop arrivals in May, these are a great option for Central America coffee right now. |
|
About Salvadorian Coffee
 Unripe green coffee cherry, Pacas cultivar, El Salvador 2004.  Ripe red coffee cherry in the receiving bin at the the mill. |
I am a believer: El Salvador has great coffee. Bourbon varietal coffees are one end of the spectrum, balanced, classic "Central" profile and also a good alternative to Brazil as a base for espresso; Pacamara varietal coffees are their opposite, quirky and full of character. High altitudes and good, dense, traditional varietals are a large part of it. El Salvador coffee had an undeservingly poor reputation for years, marred mostly by the inability to deliver coffee of high quality in an unstable social climate. Unfortunately, agriculture is the first to suffer in revolution and civil insecurity, since it requires years to rebuild a farm if it is neglected. In El Salvador the coffee trade, like the government in general, was controlled by a ruling elite, a handful of wealthy families that operated many farms. El Salvador had tended towards the right politically, and the smaller coffee farmer and coffee workers fared poorly in this climate. But the democratic movements and decades of civil war have changed many things. It shows in the quality of coffee, and the availibility of small lots from exceptional small-scale farms. Instead of low grade commercial blending coffees, we now see an eruption of farm-specific regional offerings from small co-ops or estates. El Salvador always had the right ingredients ---soil, altitude, climate ---to produce coffee on par with Guatemala. Most of all, it has the cultivars; Bourbon, the classic old-world coffee; Pacamara, the full-character, odd-ball varietal. For the past 7 years I have been able to buy incredible Salvadors --drop dead quality, great acidity, refinement and depth. Last year it was the incredible Organic Los Naranjos. Then we had the Santa Ritas and Salaverrias. Good stuff. Then the real bombshell coffee: the Cup of Excellence lot from the San Francisco farm. After that, our Organic Santa Adelaida lots, and our Pacamara Cup of Excellence coffees. This truly represents the pinnacle of high grown Salvadors. If you like, you can read about my earliest trip there, and role as a judge in the competition. I visited some of our important coffee sources, such as Aida Batlle's Kilimanjaro farm, and Vickie Dalton's Finca Matalapa. All the travelogues are collected in the travelogue section of the Coffee Library .
|
Our Unroasted Salvadoran Coffee Offerings:
Please refer to our Reference Page for definitions of terms and cupping numbers used below. Check out the Sweet Maria's Coffee Home Roasting Forum for more conversation about home roasting this and other coffees.
| $6.60 | $12.54 | $28.71 | $54.78 | $101.64 |
|
|
|
|
|
El Majahual is part of a larger farm that was divided some years back. Majahual averages 1500 meters although much of the farm is higher up. This year we decided to offer lots from those specific plots on the farm that are at the upper altitudes, that are basically 1600 meters and up. These are called "tablones" which literally means plank or board. I found that this tablon called Tempisque was distinct in the cup, so we chose to separate it as a special lot. In other ways, the farm is impressive. I visited last year, and again in 2011, and was amazed by the 50 to 80 year old Bourbon trees. There is a minority percentage of Pacas at El Majahual, which is a local type of Bourbon as well. The trees at the farm seemed so healthy, with great coffee production on branches from top to bottom, despite their age. It proves that long-term, traditional farming techniques can result in good production volumes and cup quality too, rather than new techniques that exhaust small hybrid plants that must then be replaced every 10 years.
From the ground coffee, the fragrance ranges from malted milk to praline and cocoa. The wet aroma has caramel and butter scents emerge, slight red apple notes and mulling spice. It's a very rounded and balanced aromatic image this cup paints, which suggests the old Bourbon cultivar that comprises most of this coffee. The cup taste stays true to the aromatics; rounded and balanced, with a thick and syrupy body, Cocoa chocolate notes combine well with almond roast tones to give a confection-like character. There's a very mild red apple sweetness lurking behind the roast notes, and fading to cocoa-dusted nut tones in the finish. While balanced as drip or press coffee, Tablon Tempisque is really intense and wonderful as espresso. I made SO espresso shots from City+ to FC+ roasts and found it performed well all along the spectrum. Classic espresso flavors of chocolate bittersweets have a nice bright note, gingerbread spice flavors, and a long finish.
View Cupping Scores
Archived Reviews
To view reviews for out of stock coffees, visit our El Salvador Coffee Archives.
2005-2006 | 2004 -2003 | 2001-2002 | Pre-2000 Tom's Sample Cupping Log | Moisture Content Readings This page is authored
by Thompson Owen and Sweet Maria's Coffee, Inc. and is not to be
copied or reproduced without permission
|