El Salvador Coffee--Once the world's fourth largest coffee producer El Salvador Coffee

Many friends don't know El Salvador, a country located in northern Central America. Honduras to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the south, Guatemala to the west and northwest, and the Gulf of Fonseca to the east. The smallest and most densely populated country in Central America. Terrain to mountains, plateau-based, multi-volcanic, Santa Ana active volcano elevation of 2,385 meters, the highest peak for the country; north of the Lompa Valley; south of the narrow coastal plain.

climatic characteristics

Savanna climate. Plain area belongs to tropical rain forest climate, mountain area belongs to subtropical forest climate. The annual average temperature is 25-28℃, the annual precipitation in mountainous areas is more than 1,800 mm, and that in coastal areas is about 1000 mm. May-October is the rainy season.

Don't underestimate El Salvador's coffee production. In its heyday, it was the fourth largest coffee producer in the world, but decades of civil war almost brought down the coffee industry. Fortunately, the war stopped in recent years and the coffee industry recovered. The only benefit of the civil war for El Salvador was that farmers left their fields barren and could not catch up with the most popular Catimo train of cultivation in the past two decades, thus preserving the ancient bourbon and tibeka varieties. In other words, El Salvador still cultivated in the most traditional shade method, which had a positive effect on the aroma of coffee. In 2005, the Salvadoran hybrid Pacamara swaggered at the coe, leaving many international cup testers confused and wondering how to grade it. Unexpectedly, this hybrid bean not only broke the boundaries of coffee, but also expanded the visibility of Salvadoran coffee.

Salvadoran fine coffee is concentrated in Santa Ana in the west and Charantan Nango volcanic rock producing areas in the northwest. In recent years, almost all of the top 10 cup tests come from these two producing areas, with an altitude of about 900-1500 meters. Bourbon is the main one (accounting for 68%), followed by Pacas (accounting for 29%), and mixed Pacamara, Duraai and Cadura only account for 3%.

The coffee harvest lasts from November to March. All are hand-picked to harvest fresh coffee.

Generally speaking, Salvadoran coffee inherits the mild quality of Central American coffee, which is soft, slightly sour and has a good sweetness. At the same time, it has its own characteristics: aromatic taste slightly sour, very soft; pure without impurities, taste balance is excellent; smooth feeling like cream chocolate is impressive; coffee in the mouth that kind of dense feeling makes coffee have a deep taste, long aftertaste.

Salvadoran coffee is graded according to the altitude at which it is grown, with the highest grade being SHG:

SHG: Strictly High Grown-1200 meters above;

HG: High Grown-900 meters above;

CS: Central Standard-600 meters above.

Pacamara Profile:

Pacamara varieties are artificially bred varieties of Pacas and Maragogipe. It was first developed by Salvadoran researchers in 1958. Pacamara species is a rare excellent variety under artificial breeding. Green is better than blue. It perfectly inherits the advantages of the mother plant. It has the excellent taste of Pacas species. The raw bean particles inherit the big size of Maragogipe. The bean body is at least 70%-80% larger than that of elephant bean, 100% larger than 17 meshes, and 90% larger than 18 meshes. The average length of beans is 1.03 cm (generally about 0.8-0.85 cm). The average width of beans is 0.71 cm (generally about 0.6-0.65 cm). The thickness is 0.37 cm. The beans are full and round. This variety is characterized by its lively acidity, sometimes biscuit flavor, sometimes fruit flavor, excellent thickness and grease feeling. The best quality is from El Salvador and Guatemala.

Part of the article comes from the new edition of coffee, written by Han Huaizong, edited by Coffee Workshop. Please indicate if you reprint it.