Los Angeles - Espresso from El Salvador

A syrupy, dense and fruity espresso from western El Salvador. Our roaster Juan was in El Salvador in the spring and was looking for a coffee for the seasonal espresso. He found a Pacamara from Finca Los Ángeles, which was fermented in sacks and then dried in the cherry. We taste plums and peaches, accompanied by a delicate acidity and super dense texture.

Los Ángeles - Green coffee information

Origin: Apaneca, Ahuachapan, El Salvador

Producers: Finca Los Angeles & Los Naranjos

Varieties: Pacamara, Arabica.

Post-harvest process: Fermentation in polypropylene bags, then dried as natural

All our coffees are sold as whole beans.

This is how our David would prepare the Augusto

Our David developed and optimized the recipe with the following equipment:

Water : total hardness 5 °dH, alkalinity 3 °dH
Mill: Niche Zero
Grinding degree: 14
Espresso machine: Ascaso Steel Duo PID with IMS 24.5 Competition sieve
Age of roasting: 14 days

Tell me more about Finca Los Ángeles

The Finca Los Ángeles is somewhat unusual for local conditions, being located in a valley and completely flat. David Velázquez and his team also only grow Pacamara. They have structured the finca with many green borders, so they have planted many shade trees and bushes between the plots. The farm has undergone an impressive transformation: for a good ten years, the owners have taken new paths and focused on the sustainable management of the farm. Soil health has been the focus since then, as has the care of the farm by young people who learn the theory at the regional agricultural school and apply it on the farm.

Why does the coffee taste the way it tastes?

David Velazquez explained to us that they try to wait for the trees to be as evenly ripe as possible. As soon as 95% of the cherries are above the Brix value of 20°, they pick the Pacamara variety. They rinse the coffee cherries in the basin and remove the overripe and underripe ones. They then fill polypropylene bags with almost 200kg of coffee cherries each and leave them to ferment in the absence of air. They measure the pH value every 24 hours until it drops to 4.2° after 72 hours and the Brix value drops to 13° - the sugars have been metabolized by the fermentation and produce gases, some alcohol and new aroma precursors. They then dry the coffee on drying beds. The uniform ripeness gives the coffee a very dense, almost syrupy texture. The shorter fermentation time of 72 hours underlines the texture and adds fresh, fruity, stone fruit-like notes to the coffee.

Why did we buy this coffee?

Juan has been roasting with us for almost as long as the roastery has been in existence. He is originally from El Salvador and has a broad coffee network there. In the spring he visited old friends with the aim of finding a coffee for the seasonal natural espresso. We love the naturals from El Salvador and have had them many times in the past: Don Roberto and Miramar were coffees that you and we loved. This year Juan took samples from Los Naranjos, a company that runs several farms, including Finca los Ángeles. We particularly liked the Pacarama because it has exactly what we like in espresso: texture, fruit and lots of balance.

How do we roast this coffee?

We roast the coffee as a 20kg batch on our 30kg Giesen roaster. The roasting time is 12 minutes with a development time of 1:15 minutes. We start the roasting with a lot of energy and only reduce it minimally because the large bean requires a lot of energy. In the last third we have the coffee at temperature and now reduce the gas first strongly and then gradually. In this way we level out the development of the bean temperature towards the end and guide the coffee so that we achieve the desired mixture of fruit, texture and balance.

Import Bean