El Salvador — Diego Baraona Los Pirineos Pacamara (Washed)

Tastes Like — 🍓 Tart Red Berries • 🍑 Stone Fruit • 🍫 Dark Chocolate

DETAILS

• Producer: Diego Baraona

• Farm: Los Pirineos

• Region: Tecapa-Chinameca, Usulutan, El Salvador

• Varietal: Pacamara

• Process: Washed

• Altitude: 1100–1400 MASL

• Harvest: February 2026

• Size: 250g

INTRO

Pacamara is a crossing between Pacas and Maragogipe that can have very interesting cup profiles. It was released to farmers around El Salvador a bit early, before it was a stable cultivar—meaning different outcomes arise from seeds of existing plants, so you can find really great tasting ones and some that are not so tasty.

THE PRODUCER

For many years our friend and coffee farmer Gilberto Baraona planted a great selection of Pacamara on his farm and was able to get numerous top 10 placements at the El Salvador Cup of Excellence before he passed away. Fortunately his son, Diego, is carrying on his legacy and continues to produce top quality Pacamara coffees.

Los Pirineos is located on top of the Tecapa volcano in Chinameca, Usulutan in El Salvador. It is over 150 hectares in size and the altitude ranges from around 1100–1400 metres above sea level. Over the years, Gilberto and now Diego Baraona have planted over 80 different cultivars of coffee on the farm, which grows under partial shade from native shade trees. Today Diego produces high quality certified Pacamara seeds that he also sells to other farmers.

THE PROCESS

The Washed process at Los Pirineos involves:

• 🍒 Selective Hand Picking and Sorting — All cherries picked by hand, with unripe and damaged cherries removed from the ripe cherries before processing

• 🔧 De-Pulping — Coffee cherries de-pulped before fermentation

• 🧪 Dry Fermentation — Overnight dry fermentation

• 🚿 Washing — Mucilage washed off the parchment coffee the next morning

• ☀️ Raised Bed Drying — Dried slowly on raised beds, most covered with shade nets, raked throughout the day for even drying and covered at night to prevent condensation

• 📦 Storage — Stored in air-tight grain pro bags before milling, sorting, and vacuum packing on the farm

This careful washed process, combined with slow shaded drying, showcases the complex tart fruit character this Pacamara lot is celebrated for.

THE CUP

With complex tart red fruit flavours, notes of stone fruit and structured acidity, this is a great example of how complex a washed Pacamara can be. There is good reason why Los Pirineos has won so many awards for their Pacamara coffees—free from the herbal or oniony off-flavours sometimes associated with the cultivar, a testament to Los Pirineos' role in developing and stabilising this line of Pacamara.

Flavour Notes

• 🍓 Tart Red Berries

• 🍑 Stone Fruit

• 🍫 Dark Chocolate