This fruity-floral Pacamara is a delightful treat from our friends at Finca Noruega, source of our epic Marogogype lot from last year. It's got delicate notes of watermelon, rose, and fruity chocolate, and is only available as a special release for the holiday season. We hope every sip will soothe you with its gentle sweetness!
Finca Noruega is a plot within a larger farm (Finca Los Naranjos) where the coffee is grown in a shade-managed forest. The farmers refer to this type of farming as "coffee forest", with all coffee grown in well-regulated shade that comes from native species of shade trees – in particular 'ingas', many species of which produce giant, sweet, podded beans that look and taste like something between candy floss and vanilla ice cream. Like most beans, ingas are nitrogen-fixing, which is great for the soil. The bean plants are also good at producing oxygen and capturing carbon. They help facilitate an overall healthy microclimate by absorbing loads of water during the rainy season, which helps stop the coffee from getting overly wet (leading to fungus), and they release moisture during the dryer and hotter parts of the year, reducing soil and plant temperature by as much as 25%. They also act as a windbreak for the farms, which further protects any plants, particularly those with weaker tap roots, that are potentially liable to topple in windy weather.
Finca Noruega consists of 43 manzanas planted with a range of varieties from bourbon to geisha in the Ahuachapán mountain range, west of El Salvador. This farm is part of the Los Naranjos group headed by Sigfredo Corado, a retired professor of agronomy from the National School of Agriculture. It's also part of the Renacer Program, a technical coffee field school for producers in the area to learn about better farm management practices. This program is funded by Raices (Roots) and supported by Catholic Relief Services in El Salvador.
Renacer Program is led by Sigfredo and 6 field technicians; they help small to medium producers in the area by training in best farm practises that are restorative for the land and soil, as well as beneficial for the yield and quality of the coffee. The field school is based at Finca Noruega, where classes are held twice a month. As of 2021, they have 60 students who work on the test plots where they can implement the knowledge gained in class before applying it to their own farms.
This lot is made up solely of pacamara that was selectively picked before being taken to the wet mill and drying beds at Beneficio San Rafael.
We sourced this coffee via our amazing coffee importing friends at Falcon. Falcon also assisted with organised training in El Salvador in conjunction with Catholic Relief Services by sending the head of their Microlot program, Carlos Estevez from the Aruco Cooperative in Honduras, for a week of training.
Elevation: 1450-1700 Meters above Sea Level
Varietal: Pacamara
Our cup score: 87
Price paid per kg: £11.94
Process: 72 hr anaerobic natural
