El Salvador La Guachoca Natural

This El Salvador is a natural sundried processed coffee from the Santa Ana region and the Finca La Guachoca farm. They grow the coffee at 4000 feet up in the mountains, mostly of Pacas varietal. The farmers divide their harvest into washed, honey, and natural coffee processing. This year we are stocking the natural beans. They are well sorted and almost look like a washed process coffee because of how even the coloration is.

Natural coffees from Central America tend to be creamy with fruity and sweet qualities to it. this one is not particularly fruity, but it hits you really hard with an aroma of caramel, roasted hazelnut, chocolate, then there is some slight orange and cherry cobbler notes.

You want to keep this roast on the shorter end of things, with maybe just 20 seconds past the end of the 1st cracks for coffee, and more like 30-40 seconds for espresso. We needed the crema and fruitiness of a natural coffee for our espresso blend, so we are primarily roasting this as an espresso component, but it's very nice as coffee as well as long as you keep it light. 

Don't try taking it dark. As with most natural-processed coffees, it is going to taste burnt if you take it anywhere close to the 2nd cracks.

US Arrival August 2024