It’s often said that variety and processing are the two parents of flavor when it comes to coffee and while there are always exceptions to the rule I think that it’s mostly true. The fun part about the last 10 years of specialty coffee is how refined this maxim is getting. Greater education and more experiments have led us out of the dark ages of just simply “washed” or “natural” coffee (and no I didn’t forget about you “wet-hulled” coffee people), and into a glorious grey area where coffees are “technically” washed or natural, but have borrowed enough understanding and technique from each other to create some really beautiful coffees that take the best from each world. 
 
Our current offering from Finca Noruega is a great history lesson in all of this; a lot of Specialty coffee coming out of El Salvador is the Pacamara varietal as it was developed by the Salvadoran Institute for Coffee Research (ISIC) in 1958 by crossing the Pacas and Maragogype varietals. Pacas, however, sometimes gave off a savory quality that some of the Pacamara varietals inherited. To get around/compliment this, heavy natural processing was used. As such, a lot of Specialty coffee coming out of El Salvador was heavy on the fermentation flavors in a way that could be… a bit much. 

Fast-forward another decade and a greater scientific understanding of processing along with which other varietals do well in El Salvador’s terroir, and you end up with some truly lovely and refined cups… like this one from Finca Noruega. White grape, Lemon/Lime Citrus, as well as sweet dark chocolate and prune make this a pleasantly complex “natural processed” cup without being… too much. We only have a small lot this year from our friends at Café Imports so be sure to snag this one while you can. 

Enjoy!