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By November El Salvador is already past bloom, the coffee cherries are a few months shy of peak ripeness and Marco Batres is preparing both his wet and dry mill for production. These mills will process the sizable harvests of Sr. Batres's family of estates; the 15 estates in total can be found scattered around the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range. They are all organic, all Rainforest Alliance certified, and the coffees produced therein are known for having some of the highest quality in all of El Salvador. The quality of the coffee produced by Marco Batres is exemplified by 4 of his lots taking top honors in this year's El Salvador Cup of Excellence competition. We were able to secure a small 5 bag lot of one such winner, the best of group in my opinion, from a 40 hectare estate called Altamira I.

Once called El Madriado, Sr. Batres changed its name to Altamira I because, frankly, when you have 15 farms and 2 mills, the less variation in names, the better. Sr. Batres explained to me that there are 3 Altamira farms, each producing the bourbon varietal, but only Altamira I grows a second varietal called pacamara.

Pacamara is just about the biggest bean you've ever seen. Developed by the Salvadorean Coffee Research Institute in 1958, this hybrid culitvar sought to combine high productivity and environmental adaptability with lushness and superior cup quality. Pacamara is typically characterized by a brilliant balance of sparkling acidity and creamy body. This El Salvador Altamira I pacamara is no exception. During the Cup of Excellence, an international jury found that this coffee had notes of honey and caramel with grapefruit acidity and banana. This is a highly nuanced coffee with a lot of dimension and we are roasting it with the intention of preserving its every character.