Listen to the story of El Salvador Coffee

Today, I would like to talk about El Salvador Coffee, the coffee evolved with a sad history. Also, I will briefly discuss about the PACAS variety, its different grades and tastes, and the roasting point.

 

 

 

The painful history of the coffee in El Salvador, which nobody questioned about 

Many Latin American countries made their wealth with the coffee cultivation and El Salvador was no exception. The coffee industry began to bloom in earnest with the efforts of government led policy.

 

Before coffee became a major export good, the country’s export heavily relied on the crop called Indigo. But ever since late 1800, coffee became the country’s main source of export income by making up more than 90% of country’s total export.

 

After this boom in the coffee industry, people in the government and military authorities began to invest in the plantations. Due to that, more than half of farmers who used to jointly own the land, have lost their ownership and turned to ‘farm workers’ instead. 

 

 

The unfortunate event does not end here. With the global depression in 1920, the coffee price decreased drastically. And like all the other sad ending does, the less fortunate ones, poor farmers had to bear most of the damage. The continued suffering exhausted their patience and eventually caused the conflict between farmers and the military authorities.

 

Actually a more accurate word to describe the situation would be “massacre” rather than a conflict. It was one-sided. In just three days, 30,000 farmers were being killed.

 

Certainly,it is not wrong to say that the boom of the coffee industry in the modern day was built upon the sacrifice of those farmers.

 

 

The local variety saved by playing both ends against the middle

If you look into the history of El Salvador, coffee industry plays a very important role yet, they failed to develop the industry in a more deliberate manner.

 

The other neighboring countries were busy replacing their local variety to more improved variety that can give higher yields. This may deteriorate the quality of coffee, but surely maximized the productivity and profitability.

Thankfully, El Salvador was not able to do so.

 

 

Ironically, El Salvador falling behind the competition between the neighbors left the country with its unique local variety, Bourbon which makes up to 70% of country’s coffee export.

 

(*Local variety : the coffee variety has been continued from TYPICA breed, thus they are genetically similar.)

 

Because the land is rich in mineral, it is clearly an ideal place to grow coffee. I wish El Salvador would be able to develop its coffee industry in a more sophisticated way by harnessing the lessons learned from its past history.

And eventually we as customers can  enjoy better quality coffee. 

 

 

The variety we cannot leave out, PACAS

In the mid 1900, Don Alberto Pasca discovered the mutant of local variety. In later day we call this as Pacas. Then, Pacamara variety was created by breeding the Pasca with Maragogype. The quality of a cup of Pasca is similar to that of Bourbon. And it is impossible to discuss coffee in El Salvador without Pasca.

 

(*Pacamara : the size of unroasted beans is huge and has many scents.)

(*Maragogype: the mutant of Typica variety, beans and tree are big but, have low productivity. )

 

 

Grading of coffee depending on the cultivation altitude

Coffee is graded depending on the altitude of their cultivation area.

 

SHG (Strictly High Grown) : When the coffee is grown above the altitude of 1200m.

HG (High Grown) : When the coffee is grown between the altitude of 900m~1200m.

Central Standard : When the coffee is grown between the altitude of 600m~900m.

 

 

The cultivation area that is not often used as the label

There are many possible stories out there. But it is just that they do not like to name their coffee.

 

The cultivation location is

- Apaneca IlMagepec : Bourbon variety 64%.

- Alotepec Metapan : Bourbon 30%

- El Balsamo Quezaltepec : Bourbon 52%~74%

- Chichontepec Volcano : Bourbon 71%

- Tepeca Chinameca : Bourbon 70%

- Cacahuatique : Bourbon 65%

 

Various colors and roasting points

The most distinct characteristic of the coffee is the sweetness and the balance of overall flavor. Because the balance is good, you may feel that the coffee from this region has smoother acidity compared to those other Latin American coffees.

 

With these characteristics, different flavor can be created by adjusting the roasting point and extraction variables.

 

 

There is a significant advantage when the taste of coffee is well balanced. That is, the various flavors that can be created without blending. You can change them depending on the purpose and objective.

 

For El Salvador SHG grade, the density of coffee is relatively high, so it needs higher heat in certain period during the roasting process. If not, the heat may not be transferred all the way through the center of the beans and this likely to create roasting defects.

I will attach the link below to share more on the roasting technique depending on the density level of coffee. Please feel free to learn more.

 

 

Lastly,,,

The sizes of farm vary from small farms to big farms with huge facility. Thus, there is a base infrastructure for coffee cultivation already which forms the robust traceability from farm to consumer.

 

El Salvador coffee is a charming coffee that changes its taste depending on the characteristics of the person who makes that cup of coffee. 

 

Why don’t you go and find out the true color of the owner of coffee house?

 

Thank you for your time.

 

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