El Salvador Cerro Las Ranas "Grown On The Famous Hill of Frogs"
Recommendation: For people who enjoy a sweet coffee with nice body and a mellowed acidity. This is not an edgy or daring coffee, but instead is a coffee meant to be shared. Even if you normally add sugar to your cup, you should try a sip of this black. You may be very pleasantly surprised.
This Salvadoran coffee is grown in the volcanic region of Salvador. There are over 23 active volcanoes in this little country and the Cerro Estate is in the Apaneca-Llamatepec mountain range among seven of these volcanoes. It derives its name from a lagoon situated above the farm which is flooded by small frogs hence its name - Hill of Frogs.
Coffee is grown in volcanic soil, of bourbon-paca varieties; altitude is 5100 ft. Grown under variety of shade trees in ideal setting for tree maturation--constant breezes, full sunshine and relatively cool, dry nights. What sets this coffee apart is the processing. to create pulped natural, as opposed to fully washed coffees, the coffee cherry skin is removed, but instead of the sticky mucilage underneath being washed off, the beans with mucilage intact goes directly to the drying patios and is dried, raked, dried some more. A 2005 eruption of the Santa Ana devastated the farm, but it has been restored and the soil, rich with volcanic ash, gives this coffee a smooth distinct body. The ripe cherries are picked and partially wet processed at Las Cruces Mill, but then left to dry on clay patios with the mucilage still on the bean the reward is one of the sweetest and most complex of any Central American cup.
The pulped natural process (also called honeyed) makes the coffee different from wet processed coffee in a couple of other ways--the body is enhanced and the acidity is toned down. So you end up with a rich, mellow cup. This plays very well against the sweet tropical fruit note at the start, giving way to a creamy milk chocolate, an orangey finish. Hints of berry and honey, or rustic sweetness, throughout.
Cupping Notes: This coffee starts off sweet followed by a creamy, milk chocolate-citrus flavor, fully developed body and a smooth finish.
Recommendations: For people who enjoy a sweet coffee with nice body and a mellowed acidity. This coffee does not give you that an edgy feeling but instead is a coffee meant to be shared. Even if you normally add sugar to your cup, you should try a sip of this black. You may be very pleasantly surprised.
Growing Conditions: Rainforest Alliance Certified Shade grown, hand-picked sun dried.
Hardness of the Bean: Strictly High Grown (highest), very dense.
Processing: Pulped Natural (honeyed) or semi-wet.
ROASTED IN SMALL BATCHES TO GUARANTEE AN EVEN, MEDIUM ROAST - Small batch roasting is more expensive because of labor costs, but this roasting technique ensures that each batch of coffee is of superior quality and roasted evenly to the desired roast profile, not mass produced. This process draws out the best possible flavor in each batch. Small batch roasting permits a higher quality of standards in coffee throughout the complete process: from picking out the correct coffee beans, to choosing the correct charge & drop temperature & then to slowly roasting each small batch to perfection.
Enjoy,
Darling & Family
Taste Our Passion In Every Sip !
This coffee is roasted to medium, to protect its natural flavor.
Blue Macaw Coffee Roasters A Small Family Owned & Operated Business:
My name is Darling, We are a family owned and operated business; we take great pride in our coffees. I grew up in the coffee producing region of Nicaragua. As a small child I remember helping my father pick coffee for the local co-operative. I started learning about coffee when I was 4 years old when my dad took me to work with him. I learned how to spot the attributes of a high quality coffee bean as a young child. I now go to most of the countries we source our coffees from as our companies coffee buyer.
Our roast master (my husband) learned the art of roasting coffee in Costa Rica for six years where he studied to master coffee roasting. Blue Macaw Coffee Roasters combines old world coffee roasting techniques that he learned while studying the art of coffee roasting for 6 long years. After returning to America we opened Blue Macaw Coffee using the experience he gained while roasting in Costa Rica & my knowledge of what to look for in a high quality coffee bean from childhood. We use all this knowledge along with the high tech digital roasting technologies of today’s small batch roasters. Together we bring you the finest roasted coffees available. I’m sure you will find each of our coffees are the finest quality money can buy.
Our Roasting Process
Roasting coffee is considered an art & is a process of understanding the physical & chemical property changes known as “Pyrolisis” this is the chemical reaction & change of composition that accrues during the roasting process. Green coffee beans react to certain temperatures & durations of exposure to heat. This roasting process changes the chemical composition causing a caramelization of the coffee beans to occur. Developing these chemical compounds will greatly impact the coffees taste, aroma, sweetness, acidity & body of a coffee.
Small Batch Roasting
To better understand the benefits of roasting in small batches is very simple. We use 3 Probat 12 kilo roasters; these roasters are custom built for us in Germany. By greatly reducing the batch size in each roaster we can control the coffees inner core temperature & therefor have more control over the chemical changes our coffee beans will go through while being roasted.
Roasted Each Morning & Shipped Each Afternoon
Each morning we figure out how much of which coffees we need & then go to work roasting that coffee in our small batch roasters to give it an amazing quality & taste. We only roast what we need for that business day. By doing this you’re receiving a coffee that is always roasted to its peak of freshness. Unlike our competitors we don’t have storage shelves that our coffees sit on for days or even weeks waiting to be sold. Considering the short life spam of truly excellent coffee we fell this is a better approach then simply giving you a discount on let’s say 5 pound which could take months to drink.
Advantage over our competitors
Most roasting companies use 50 to 100 kilo roasters.
Roasting at these weights the outer temperatures of the drum & the center temperature of the drum are always going to be off by about 30 degrees. This might not sound so terrible unless you understand that just a temperature difference of 5 or 10 degrees can change the “Pyrolisis” which in turn would change the chemical reaction & change of composition inside the coffee bean. This drastic change will greatly impact the coffees taste, aroma, sweetness, acidity & body of a coffee.
So you ask yourself then why do they use these bigger roasters, good question. It is purely a business decision to go with volume instead of quality. These big roasters can produce 400 to 800 pounds of coffee in less than 2 hours. That’s great if you just want to move some weight & don’t really care about its quality.
I can assure that you will never find a company so dedicated to bringing you the finest & freshest coffees from all over the world.
Enjoy,
Darling & Family
Taste Our Passion In Every Sip !
