EL SALVADOR ESPERANZA SWISS WATER DECAF COFFEE
When it was time to renovate the fields of aging trees at Finca La Esperanza in El Salvador’s Canton El Porvenir, the team at Café Pacas saw an opportunity. Since 2012, the farm has been progressively updated, redesigned, and reimagined as a separated varietal garden, including red and orange bourbon coffees, Pacamara, Kenya, Bernardina, Mokka, and of course Pacas varieties. Coffees grown here are naturally processed nearby at the Vivagua mill. The lot chosen for this Swiss Water Small Batch Series offering is a naturally processed Red Bourbon. The farm itself is perfectly suited to coffee: it spans altitudes from 1,000–1,750 MASL, is shielded from winds, and allows for tremendous biodiversity and shade plants like conifers, eucalyptus, and ingas, and the farm is proximal to a wild-growing cypress forest just above. Ecologically beneficial practices on the farm itself include green-approved fertilisers, the use of fosas to capture water and organic runoff, and soil erosion prevention measures. As a provider of more than 65 jobs within the community, Finca La Esperanza puts a special focus on the well-being of its workers, including providing wellness initiatives and offering access to mental health programs. This coffee was scored a whopping 84 with flavour and aromatic notes listed as strawberry, floral, cherry and chocolate.
The Swiss Water process is an organic, 100% chemical-free option for decaffeination. This method does not require the addition of chemicals, instead relying on a super saturated green coffee solution called Green Coffee Extract (GCE). This is introduced to a batch of green coffee. As the GCE is already saturated with all the water-soluble compounds found in green coffee, minus the caffeine, the matching molecules won’t diffuse out of the coffee beans—but the caffeine will. The flavour is retained in the beans while the caffeine is removed. Thanks to some scientific smarts and creativity, it’s possible to have decaf coffee that tastes the same – just without the caffeine!
We've been roasting the world's best coffee in our 2kg San Franciscan roaster since 1994, resisting the temptation and logic of roasting on a more commercial scale, to stand by the philosophy that we can bring out the best in any coffee working this way. To give some context, each batch produces just enough for 8 supermarket size packets. Often, one roast is taken entirely by one customer!
The best tip we can offer to enhance your enjoyment of any coffee you try is to suggest that you grind your own beans freshly as required.