El Salvador La Esperanza Pacamara

This is the extremely rare Pacamara varietal from El Salvador from the La Esperanza Estate in the Santa Ana growing region. First: the varietal. Pacamara was born in El Salvador in the 1950's as a cross between the enormous "elephant bean" Maragogype and Pacas which is within the Bourbon family. Both varietals are low-yielding and harder to grow than modern hybrids, so Pacamara is a rarely grown bean. Pacamara's magic was discovered and released in the early 1990's after 30+ years of experiments by the El Salvadorian Institute of Coffee Research. The bean is so large that it is too big for sorting by coffee screens. Instead of being a 16/17, or 17/18, these would be screened as a 20/21 if such a screen existed. It is super nice coffee -- not only in the way the beans look, but how it is smooth, sweet, aromatic, and oh-so-drinkable -- a coffee that no one would ever turn down -- but with subtle flavor notes that you don't really think about but stick with you long after the mug is empty