Los Ángeles - Espresso from El Salvador

Unfortunately, this coffee is all sold out, but we're planning to have it back with the next harvest.

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

Los Ángeles - Green Coffee Info

Origin: Apaneca, Ahuachapán, El Salvador

Producers: Finca Los Angeles & Los Naranjos

Varieties: Pacamara

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

How our David would prepare the Los Angeles espresso

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

Water: Total hardness 5 °dH, alkalinity 3 °dH

Grinder: Niche Zero

Grind setting: 14

Tell me more about Finca Los Ángeles

For local standards, Finca Los Ángeles sits somewhat unusually in a valley floor and is completely flat. David Velázquez and his team also grow only Pacamara. They structure the farm with many green borders, having planted numerous shade trees and shrubs between the plots. The farm has undergone an impressive transformation: for the past good ten years, the owners have taken new approaches and focused on sustainable farm management. Soil health has been at the center ever since, as has the care of the farm by young people who work out the theory at the regional agricultural school and apply it on the farm.

Why does the coffee taste the way it does?

David Velazquez explained to us that they try to wait for the most uniform ripeness on the trees. Once 95% of the cherries reach a Brix value of 20°, they pick the Pacamara variety. They rinse the coffee cherries in a basin to remove over-ripe and under-ripe ones. Then they fill polypropylene bags with about 200kg of coffee cherries each and let them ferment under oxygen exclusion. Every 24 hours they measure the pH value until it drops to 4.2° after 72 hours and the Brix value drops to 13° - the sugars have been metabolized by fermentation and produce gases, some alcohol and new aroma precursors. After that, they dry the coffee on drying beds. The uniform ripeness gives the coffee a very dense, almost syrupy texture. The rather shorter fermentation time of 72 hours emphasizes 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 existed. He originally comes from El Salvador and has a broad coffee network there. In spring, he visited old acquaintances with the goal of finding a coffee for our seasonal natural espresso. We love the naturals from El Salvador and have repeatedly enjoyed them in the past: Don Roberto and Miramar were coffees that excited you and us. This year Juan brought samples from Los Naranjos, a company that operates several farms, including Finca Los Ángeles. The Pacamara particularly appealed to us because it brings exactly what we love 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 roast with lots of energy, reducing only minimally because the large bean requires a lot of energy. In the final third, we bring the coffee up to temperature and now reduce the gas first strongly, then gradually. This flattens the development of the bean temperature toward the end and guides the coffee so that we achieve the desired mix of fruit, texture and balance.

Import Bean