2018-01-19 — El Salvador Alpina Pacamara

Roast Date: 19 Jan 2018
Roast Level: FC
Duration: 12m5s
First Crack @ 9m17s
Rating: ★★★☆☆
1.2lb → 0.99lb; 18% Weight Loss

Sweet Maria’s

This Pacamara lot from Alpina has such an interesting herbal sweetness in the cup. City and City+ roasts have flavors of sweet basil and celery soda, and an delightful green floral accent note. The fragrance and aroma smell complex, floral tea and sweet herbaceous notes permeate from the coffee, and the impressions I get are reminiscent of Maracaturra coffees, the large bean hybrid of Maragoype and Caturra that is popular in Nicaragua. This coffee excels as a pour over brew, with well articulated flavor notes discernible in the cup. Acidity is brilliant in light roasts, like tangy citrus, a vibrance that holds up as the coffee cools. The level of sweetness is moderate, and transparent like simple syrup sugar, lending sweetness without the added molasses flavors that come with sugar in the raw.

Roast Notes

Cold day, but I preheated the bowl and that apparently worked really well. On top of that I used the dual bowl method of cooling and then when I was done poured the beans in a cookie sheet. Seemed to work well.

Cupping

Acidity: Slight acidity at the front, which fades fairly quickly, leaving the flavor fairly sweet in general.

Sweetness: I don’t think that this is very sweet, except in contrast after the acidity fades.

Mouthfeel: Not very oily.

Flavor: I can taste some of the floral notes; might even be able to pick out the celery flavor.

Finish: This has a very straightforward finish that makes me think of graham crackers. Love it.

Balance: This coffee great, like most Salvadoran coffee. Not the best, but definitely good.