Pacamara

Here at Hasbean, we love Pacamaras! And we love to share that love! So we wanted to write a bit about the varietal that we care so much about.

This article is inspired by the Yellow Pacamara we have brought from Limoncillo for a number of years now, but has been many months in the writing.

The Yellow Pacamara comes from the special auction that was held a number of years ago, called Los Favoritos Fincas Mierisch, where some very special lots were sold to the highest bidder. This was a super special chance to try something amazing.

We first came across Yellow Pacamara in 2012 when visiting Finca Limoncillo. We begged Erwin Mierisch to sell us some back then, but he said they were using all the crop to create more seedlings to plant more coffee, but soon it would be available.

It's a varietal that's confused and bemused us for quite a while, and one we've spent a bit of time researching and tasting - thought this might be a good place to share our experiences with you.

We would like to add the caveat that lots of this information comes from our own findings, or from sources we believe to be true. The information is also from rum fueled conversations at origin with producers whose first language is not English so any errors are just that.

Pacamara is a hybrid of two quite different varietals, this is a good place to start to get an understanding of what makes this such a fascinating varietal

Mommy Bean Pacas

Pacas is a natural and spontaneous mutation of Bourbon, El Salvador's answer to Villa Sarchi in Costa Rica or Caturra in Brazil, it thrives in the El Salvador Climate where it was first found.

This variety was discovered in 1949 in the San Rafael farm we buy from on the Santa Ana Volcano. Funnily Pacas was never sold from this farm on its own until we randomly asked them if they would! It has quickly become a firm favourite here at Hasbean.

The story goes that a visiting botanist, Dr. Cogwill, was asked to check out this plant they had seen doing very well on the farm. First spotted on the farm in 1930, Don Francisco Pacas re-planted a 3/4 of a manzana of the farm with seed stock from some special trees he had seen on San Rafael. These trees seemed to yield much more than the other Bourbon trees, and seemed healthier and thrived far more. This re-planted part of the farm yielded 20% more than the rest of the farm, and this got nicknamed San Ramon Bourbon. Because of the nickname, some people thought that it was a hybrid between Typica and San Ramón, but later it was confirmed that it was a natural mutation after genealogy tests on the plant.

Dr. Gogwill meant to label the trees with the name San Rafael San Ramon Bourbon, but forgot. When he returned to Florida University he did remember the name of the family who owned the farm - the Pacas family - so he marked them 'Pacas', and the name of the varietal 'Pacas' was born.

• Varietal: Pacas
• Related to: Bourbon
• Origin: El Salvador
• Grows best at: 1000 metres or above
• Prevalent in: El Salvador and some of Central America
• Predominant Colour: Red
• Fruit size: Normal rounded
• Leaf Characteristics: Wide and short
• Tree Size: Dwarf
• Branches: Long
• Internodes: Short
• Botany: Mutation

Traditional Cup Characteristics

Pacas is similar to Bourbon (surprise surprise), but tends to be a little less sweet. Its yield is around 20% higher than Bourbon, and we think this has a small effects on the final cup. We have found some amazing Pacas cups, but we have also found some more disappointing. It's rare that the Pacas outperforms a Bourbon on the cupping table from the same farms (although we have seen examples of this for instance on San Rafael).

Daddy Bean Maragogype

Another mutation this time of the Typica varietal. This time though it really does fit its mutant tag. ITS HUGE !!

Pronounce mar-rah-go-jeepeh this varietal was originally found in Brazil. This variety appeared in 1870 in the Maragogipe province in Bahia.

The plant is very distinctive with very tall huge leaves and massive fruit. The coffee seed/bean is also very distinctive due to its large oversize. This has created some interest in the bean as its very distinctive to the eye, sometimes to the detriment of the cup it can fetch a premium even if it doesn't taste very good.

We’ve seen a lot of them from Brazil, Guatemala and Mexico and have even heard it said that the larger bean produces a more flavoursome coffee, but this doesn't line up with what we've tasted over the years. It’s a tiny bit of a gimmick but there are one or two fantastic examples out there, but there are many that are just plain awful, old or poorly processed. It's very little to do with the bean size and more to do with the quality of husbandry and environment, a problem of when you get that huge price regardless of how it tastes.

The plant is very low yielding despite how tall it can grow, it is known as the Arabica coffees giant, it shows a very tall size, large leaves, cherries, etc. In general, its architecture is open and messy.

• Varietal: Maragogype
• Related to: Typica
• Origin: Brazil
• Grows best at: 800 metres or above
• Prevalent in: Brazil, Guatemala and Mexico
• Predominant Colour: Red
• Fruit size: Large
• Leaf Characteristics: Large
• Tree Size: Tall
• Branches: Long
• Internodes: Short
• Botany: Mutation

Traditional Cup Characteristics 

High acidity bright citrus fruits like lemon grapefruit and floral properties.

A brief introduction to the Pacamara's Grandparents

The Mother's Side (Pacas)

Bourbon, originating maybe on the island of Bourbon (now known as Reunion) from a planting from Ethiopia or perhaps straight from Ethiopia, this varietal has many sub-varietals. At risk of pest and disease, and decidedly average in terms of yield, but the cup profile tends to be anything but average. There is some evidence that Yellow Bourbon gives a higher yield compared to its red and orange derivatives, although red is the most prevalent.

With very close links to SL28, Typica and Cattura, in the right environment because of its low yield Bourbon tends to produce a very high quality cup (there is evidence that the lower the yield the higher the quality as the plant can use its energy more efficiently).

• Varietal: Bourbon
• Related to: Heirloom
• Origin: Ethiopia / Reunion
• Grows best at: 800 metres or above
• Prevalent in: Everywhere
• Predominant Colour: Red with some orange and yellow
• Fruit size: Medium rounded
• Leaf Characteristics: Medium
• Tree Size: Medium
• Branches: Long
• Internodes: Short
• Botany: Heirloom

The Father's Side (Maragogype)

Typica is grown throughout Central America and some Indonesian islands. The plant has large elongated cherries, with the tree producing thin leaves that are long in appearance.

It grows best in sandy soils and mixed reports of its hardiness to pest and disease. Its yield is quite low. The famous Jamaican Blue Mountain is from the Typica varietal.

Typica is also known as Criollo in Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. This variety was introduced 100 years ago in the Piura Andes of Peru, because of its liking of high altitudes.

• Varietal: Typica
• Related to: Heirloom
• Origin: Ethiopia / Reunion
• Grows best at: 800 metres or above
• Prevalent in: Everywhere
• Predominant Colour: Red with some orange and yellow
• Fruit size: Medium rounded
• Leaf Characteristics: Medium
• Tree Size: Medium
• Branches: Long
• Internodes: Short
• Botany: Heirloom

How did they meet

It was a smoky bar, their eyes met. Well that would be nice, but it was in a laboratory, inside the Genetic Department of the Salvadoran Institute for Coffee Research (ISIC) back in 1958. There was a coffee breeding program using lots of varietals, these two of many. One of these experiments was crossing the above Pacas and Maragogype varietals. Of course like every good partnership, they took part of each others name.

This lab work involved individual isolating the parents until scientists obtained pure plants which gave seedlings to many lines. Many lines to find the best child (know that's impossible but think the strongest, healthiest). Coffees that would be disease resistant, strong, high yielding, biggest fruit size and many other measures of healthiness. These were then combined to obtain a new varietal, the Pacamara cultivar.

This took over 30 years to distribute the F5 (or 5th Generation) that is currently known as Pacamara. Much lab work was done to find the Pacamara that we enjoy today, finding a strain that was both strong, healthy, pest resistant and high yielding.

There's a small problem with using Pacas and Maragogype in that they both have dominant genes, so around 10-20% fail to become Pacamara and remain one or the other, so it's important for these to be spotted in the nursery/planting stage. This is easily done with the Pacas, but a little more attention is needed with the Maragoype.

True love is always bigger than the sum of its parts

This is where it really gets interesting. Our experiences of Pacas and Maragoype have been mixed at best. As a varietal it's rare to find amazing lots from either of them (Maragogype in particular). Pacas has taken lots of work to find the amazing lots we buy, and Maragogype we have found only a few lots over the years that we liked. They tend to be flat, plain and boring and lacking in any character or depth.

But stick these two together and you get one of the most unpredictable, interested and challenging delicious varietals. Now of course there are bad examples, and in fact when they are bad, they are very bad. Vegetal, mushroomy, dirty, cardboard Pacamara's are very very very common (far more common than they should be, and bought by some roasters so they just have a Pacamara). We have done more work and asked more questions of the producers we buy from about these coffees than any other. You only have to look at Limoncillo and the work we have done with the natural lots. Now please allow us to be clear here, we'd like to add lots of weight to the statement...

"we would never ever tell a coffee farmer what to do. All the experiments we have run with producers are experiments they have wanted to run, mostly their idea by asking what would you like to do. Telling a farmer what to do is like the farmer telling you how to roast. We know very very little about coffee growing (unfortunately) and would be coming at it from a knowledge base much much lower than that of the producer"

OK phew, good to have that out in the open! So the experiments we have run with the Limoncillo Natural Pacamara's were the brainchild of Eleane Mierisch who noticed on the cupping table some huge differences on how they dried the coffee. The story goes that they decided to turn the coffee every hour instead of the every two hours they had done before. Eleane thought this would make the cup cleaner whilst still retaining huge body. So everyone began to turn every hour apart from one guy who did not 'get the memo" and continued every two hours.

When visiting the farm, we were cupping samples for that year and when we got to the natural Pacamara, and it was indeed much cleaner, in fact the word used was more "Elegant". But while this elegant coffee was fantastic, the somewhat bonkers craziness of the naturals from previous years were really being missed on the table. Eleane, remembering the mistake lot that was accidentally turned less frequently, went off and roasted a sample. The first word to be spoken after taking a sip was "funky!". And so the names were born. The 'funkier' process we've had in the past was actually nothing to do with our little discovery, this was Eleane development of what we'd begun the year before. This was done with differing thickness of beans drying which slows or speeds up the drying process.

But in conclusion, the two of these varietals coming together create something far bigger and more interesting than the sum of its parts, that makes this one of the most interesting varietals.

Roasting Pacamara

Whilst Pacamara beans are not fundamentally different to roast than other beans, their larger size means there are a couple of roasting problems that they are particularly susceptible to.

Firstly, there is the issue of drying the beans. The first 80% or so of the roasting process reduces water content in the bean from about 10 or 12 percent, down to a nearly zero. Due to the large size of the Pacamara beans, if the roast is too quick, the water content in the centre of the bean will not have been reduced to the same degree as in the outer parts of the bean. This can lead to an under-roasted centre and over-roasted outside of the beans.

Secondly, Pacamaras tend to roast at slightly lower temperatures than other bean types. This is a trend they share with the other large bean varietal, Maragogype. They go through the same processes as other beans, but typically the beans will be a few degrees Celsius cooler when they reach the key roasting points of 1st Crack and 2nd Crack. Additionally, 1st and 2nd Crack are exothermic - meaning that the chemical reactions that are occurring inside the beans give out more heat than they absorb. For Pacamaras, there is an increased risk that this extra heat will cause the roast to accelerate beyond the roasters planned profile, and the beans can quickly become over-roasted.

As a general rule, sight tends to be the least useful of our senses when judging the roasting process. The third issue with Pacamaras, is that this is doubly true when roasting them. Often, Pacamaras will appear very uneven, and to be at a lighter stage of roast than they actually are.

Finally, the larger size of Pacamaras mean they take up more space in a roaster than smaller beans. As a rule of thumb, if you weigh out the same mass of unroasted Pacamara beans and of a smaller varietal of bean, the Pacamara will take up about 10% more space than the smaller beans. This is something a roaster has to be aware of, to avoid inconsistencies in the roast from an under or over-filled roasting drum.

So who's this yellow fella?

Before signing off, we just can't miss out on talking about this relatively new and very exciting varietal that was brand new to us only a few years ago. It was the motivator for writing this blog post (we've been meaning to do this for a while) that we mentioned at the beginning.

So why is this so rare? Well, it's a freak natural mutation from red fruit to yellow. This was spotted first of all on the farm of Limoncillo, amongst the red fruiting trees. This was spotted by a security guard, and brought to the attention of the Mierisch family. Now it's not unusual for a coffee plant to have a freaky one time change of colour (although not common its been seen). So they forgot about it until the same security guard became the farm manager (working hard and his way up in the farm!). So they isolated it (collecting the beans from it separately and then using the seeds to grow seedlings in the nursery, and they repeating until they had enough plant stock). Coffee takes 4 years grow into a tree that will give you a full harvest, so you can see how long this takes to build up.

In the first year of full production there was only 240 kg of Yellow Pacamara for sale and that went through the Los Favoritos auction we mentioned at the start. Back then, we tried to buy both lots (as the total production was split into 2 lots), but when the price went up up up, we just had to step back. The other lot ended up going to Japan to one of our friends there (and we're very happy they also got to enjoy some of this coffee) and we got the other one - woohoo! 

This excellent result in the auction yet again proves the complexity of this varietal. The coffee from the yellow tastes so different to the red fruit. Cupped blind we got lots of yellow fruits (yeah yeah yellow we know!) peach and apricot all over the place, a creamy mouthfeel with pineapple and tropical fruit. Compare that to the red of lemon pith on the front end, and think those bright vibrant hops you get in craft beer all the way through the rest of the taste. It has a creamy edge and all the sweetness. Super different, interesting and (most importantly) delicious coffees.

Find out even more: World Coffee Research Arabica Coffee Varieties | Pacamara