In The Cup
This naturally processed Pacamara from our friends at Café Granja la Esperanza has tonnes of sweetness, a juicy mouthfeel and bright acidity with fruit notes lik...
In The Cup
This naturally processed Pacamara from our friends at Café Granja la Esperanza has tonnes of sweetness, a juicy mouthfeel and bright acidity with fruit notes like papaya, passionfruit and apricot with a boozy note like orange wine.
The Story
After taking over the family farm, dating back to the 1930s, Rigoberto and Luis decided to take their coffee in a new direction when they began growing organic coffee in the 90's. They soon acquired another farm, La Esperanza to keep up with organic production and in 2007 Rigoberto leased a farm in Panama called La Carleida. Here he won first prize for "Best Coffee in Panama" for a Geisha varietal, the seeds of which were brought back to Colombia starting a new era for coffee at Cafe Granja La Esperanza. Five farms now make up the Estate; Potosi, La Esperanza, Hawaii, Cerro Azul and Las Margaritas, growing competition winning coffees where varietals are matched with processes to create unique flavour profiles. We have been proud to work with Rigoberto and his team since 2014 and over the last 9 years we have been delighted to showcase many of their exiting coffees. This is a great example of the long term relationships that we aim to build with all of our partners at origin.
Social and Environmental
Granja la Esperanza is a well-known producer in the world of speciality coffee due to the wide range of super high-end coffees that they produce. However, they have also shared their success with their local community in many ways. During harvest time, Café Granja look after their pickers by paying them by time not by weight and they also provide free meals and even a place to stay in their ‘barracks’. As well as looking after their own team of workers, they also help out several cooperatives in neighbouring regions by working alongside the farmers and in the washing stations to improve the cup quality so they can earn higher prices for their coffees.
As early adopters of organic production back in the 90’s, it’s clear that Rigoberto and his team have a huge respect for their land and ecosystem. All of their coffee plants are densely intercropped with a variety of other plants from shrubs to tall canopy trees including banana, guava, cacao, guanabana and many more. Not only does this help reduce the spread of pests like Broca but it also encourages birds and wildlife which in turn help by eating the Broca.
The Variety
Over time, as coffee trees grow older, they start to produce less fruit. To combat this, some producers stump their trees, this is when the tree is cut down to the trunk to encourage re growth. When the tree finally matures to a size at which it can produce fruit again, the yield and quality are much better. However, the difficult thing about stumping coffee trees is that it takes about 4 years until it can finally start producing cherries again. The last time we bought this coffee from Rigo was the last year before the Pacamara was stumped so now we are really excited to finally have it back after 5 years!
Pacamara is a huge bean, it is the second largest Arabica after Maragogype which is one of it’s parents. Pacamara was created when Maragogype was crossed with Pacas in El Salvador and it is prized for it’s exceptional cup quality. The El Salvadoran Cup of Excellence competition is often dominated by Pacamara coffees!
The Process
Harvesting is done by hand by pickers that receive thorough training to ensure they only pick cherries at the correct ripeness. After this, cherries are sorted by being floated in small tanks where the floating cherries are scooped up and separated. The cherries that sink are the correct ripeness. After this, cherries are fermented in special barrels with controlled temperature for 36 hours with no water. Barrels are closed but not sealed in order to allow an aerobic fermentation. After fermentation, the coffee cherries are left for 48 hours in mechanical dryers and then pass to solar dryers for 6 – 7 days depending on the weather until the dry cherries reach a moisture level of 11 to 12%.