According to the Specialty Coffee Association of America (SCAA), Specialty Coffee is defined as Class One and shows zero primary defects, up to five secondary defects, and zero unripened coffee beans in a 350 gram sample. It also scores 80 points or above in cup evaluation in a 100 gram roasted sample.
Our coffee offer
In our e-shop you will find coffees that include two of the top three quality standards: Specialty Grade and European Preparation. You can choose between single origin (from El Salvador) and single state (specific coffee farm) type. All are cupped according to the Cup of Excellence scoring standard form at the Pacas family’s cupping lab.
Choose what suit you best! Any further question, please contact us. We will be happy to assist you.
Coffee crop 2014-2015
Harvested when fully ripe and hand picked, our high quality coffee is sun dried in patios. Our Direct Trade coffee crop 2014-2015 was harvested during the period of December 2014 to January 2015. You can see the quality certificate and ripeness and hand picking certificate below.
El Salvador produces coffee from six different Mountain Ranges Regions:
- Apaneca Ilamatepec
- Alotepec – Metapan
- El Balsamo – Quezaltepec
- Chichontepec
- Tecapa – Chinameca
- Cacahuatique
Coffee crop 2014-2015 was harvested in the Apaneca Ilamatepec Mountain Range Region. This region covers 3 of the 14 departments of El Salvador and is located in the west of the country. The main varieties cultivated in this area are:
- Bourbon
- Pacas
- Pacamara
- Cuscatleco, Catuaí, Catimore and Catisic
The general cup profile of this region is very well balanced, clean and sweet, with refined citric acidity, silky creamy body and includes flavors of tropical fruits, caramel, peach and honey.
The Pacamara variety cultivated in this region, in particular, has large beans and offers a cup profile with mild sweetness, medium snappy acidity, butter, honey, cedar and fruit hints.
Check each of our coffee types in our e-shop so you can experience the diversity of flavours in the Apaneca Ilamatepec Mountain Range Region! Are you a coffee bar owner, coffee shop manager or café proprietor? Write to us and get a special wholesale customer deal!
Coffee milling of our Crop 2014-2015
First, the farmers transport the hand-picked coffee cherries from each farm to Vivagua Coffee Mill.
Wet processing or washed: The farmers pulp carefully each coffee type with fresh water to select the best beans. After that, they let the coffee rest for 30 hours to depulp and ferment so the beans separate from the mucilage. Then, they sun-dry the coffee beans in brick patios to slowly eliminate the excess of humidity during 11 days until 12% humidity is reached. When dried, the coffee is stored until one month before the shipment so before departing follows the parchment threshing, selection, sorting and cleaning of green coffee.
Semiwashed: Pulping of the coffee cherries, washing coffee parchment (the coffee beans have a little quantity of mucilage), then the farmers sun dry them in patios for around 8 to 12 days.
The Pacas family store every parchment coffee in a bulk according to its quality and origin. This type of storage ensures homogeneity in the beans and contributes to the conservation of unique characteristics of the coffee from each one of their estates.
For the milling process, they have highly specialized equipment that selects the best beans according to their density, weight, size and color.
In the final stage of the process, expert Salvadoran women hand-pick and eliminate any defective beans to obtain only the best coffee beans.
Finally, they pack the coffee beans in grain pro bags and then in natural fiber bags, in a 69 kilogram unit.
The entire process contributes to offer a coffee bean with exceptional organoleptic characteristics, ready to be roasted and enjoyed as the best cup of coffee.
Quality Control
The Pacas family has an in-house cupping lab that allows them to monitor every coffee batch from the moment it enters their Vivagua Coffee Mill to the moment it is shipped worldwide. Their experts are constantly controlling the bean’s characteristics such as humidity, size, flavor, color, etc. They have high-tech measuring equipment, roasting machines and grinders that help them ensure very high quality coffee.
Passion for coffee
The Pacas family is one example of the art and family traditions of growing coffee in El Salvador. Salvadoran coffee producers treat coffee as a member of their own family. They treasure coffee so much that they carefully hand pick every cherry (coffee fruit) and depulp it the same day for delivering the highest quality and best satisfying experience possible.