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PACAMARA FROM CORNELIUS SON OF TADEO LOPEZ, THIS IS THE FIRST PROPER HARVEST FROM CORNELIUS’ OWN PARCEL, AND IT’S A DOOZY.
Filter coffee just got a new level of kool at Small Batch. We do have a strange tendency to be drawn almost exclusively to the classics of Caturra and Bourbon. This is not because we’re snooty and precious, it’s just they mostly outperform the exotics on the cupping table for sweetness and complexity. A good Pacamara can be hard to find in Guatemala, and if they’re good it’s often fleetingly. But when grown on rich soils at high altitude and lovingly tended by Cornelius, we really really wanted it to be good. And si señor, es buen café.Bourbon and Typica lines are the original coffee cultivars that were taken to the Americas where natural mutations occurred. One of the many Bourbon mutations was the Pacas varietal, which was crossed with a Typica mutation – Maragogype – in the 50’s to create Pacamara.
This ‘new’ cultivar is known for its difference: intriguingly herbaceous and crazy tropical acidity. A bad one tastes intensely like spring onions and the majority are a just kinda vegetal and lacking in sweetness for us. But a good one, like this one, is as intrinsically sugary as it is aromatic and interesting.
Grown in the San Antonio Huista sub-region of Huehuetenango, Cornelius has given us a very syrupy brew, with a base of brown sugar and hazelnuts then heaps of interesting lemon balm and grape, with the delicate florals that are the hallmark of a really good paca.
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