Description
A very unique Colombian offering! Natural processed brings taste characteristics only found in other Natural processed coffees. Very sweet, fruity and winey coffee, these tastes are achieved through fermentation in the coffee cherry. After picking, they slow dry them on raised drying beds, slowly turning them over at least a couple times in a day. Tricky to process naturals, if you dry too quickly, they turn very nutty like a standard Brazil, too slowly and they can get boozy and medicinal. Right in the middle, incredible sweetness and stone fruit like tones. This is a wonderful example, sweet and fruity without being too boozy or peanut shell tasting. These tastes will be too strong if you do not like naturals or fruitier coffee. Natural fans only on this one and generally best as pour over or drip beans. Certain espresso heads or cold brew fans will enjoy them though.
This is an oddball offering, but that’s makes us like it even more. Pacamara is usually giant beans, a bit on the strong side usually containing a sweet versus earthy taste. What we have here is more of a normal to small screen offering, which is very rare for the strain, very sweet but far less earthy than average. We have only seen a couple other smaller beaned Pacamaras in all the years of doing this. It was a clear choice by the farmers, the smaller beans are often sweeter and comingling it with the natural processing leaves a tasty treat. We tip our hat to them for this coffee is quite tasty but not inherently recognizable as Pacamara by appearance.
This natural-processed, single-variety lot comes from a group of eight smallholder farmers in Huila, working in the districts of La Argentina, Acevedo, and Pitalito. Strictly high altitude beans. Originating in El Salvador as a cross between the Pacas and Maragogipe varieties, Pacamara is known for its high-cup quality and long, oval shaped seeds.
Tasting Notes: Good from light to dark, but to see the fruit notes shine, keep it in the light to medium ballpark. A bit of lemony citrus upfront that fades into a sweet red fruit tone, followed by a bit of nutty/herbal darker notes. The sweetness and fruitiness linger on the tongue. A longer setup help rid the lighter roasts of the more herbal qualities. Medium roasts are pretty bulletproof and well balanced, showing a little more of a potent nutty/chocolate undertone but no missing the fruitiness and slight citric. Darker roasts worked very nicely for a natural processed, sometimes they get all sour and twangy, but being both a Colombia and Pacamara, the more robust body and nuttiness with a slight roasty & chocolate overtone, mix very nicely with a little sweet fruitiness in the aftertaste.
Roasting Notes: An easy coffee to roast, for it was hard to find a bad roast point, but due to the higher chaff levels, slightly smaller bean screen and two toned roasting. Nailing you roast on the first go can be a little challenging. Coffee has a bit longer first crack due to the two toned roasting but its not horrible, just make sure first crack has subsided pretty good before cooling it out or risk a little grassy. Getting a little development past first crack can be wise, erroring more towards a medium roast, builds a bit more body and reduces a little acidity, minimizing and grassy or herbal notes coming from too light of a roast. As you push towards a darker roast, strong medium per se, the surface will start to show a strong sheen, can help you identify the roast level a bit.
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