Read More on Peach
The Story -
This is our fourth year bringing in coffee from the Menendez Family, and we are SO excited to be able to say that this might be the best year yet. This year, we are only bringing in this one coffee, but we are sure it will satisfy your palates.
The most interesting thing about this coffee is its variety - ‘peach’. The peach is named after the fact the ripe coffee cherries from these trees smell and taste like fresh peaches! And there’s a cool story behind how this coffee came to be cultivated on Las Delicias, too.
Back in the 1800s, when coffee first came to El Salvador, many coffee trees were brought straight from Ethiopia and planted on farms all the way across the Atlantic. These plants were a mixture of various different heirloom coffee varieties - the same ones that continue to grow in Ethiopia today. In the 1970s and 1980s, however, most of these trees, including the ones at Las Delicias, were replaced with the higher yielding and easier to cultivate Bourbon variety (which still dominates in El Salvador today).
Sometime before this replacement happened, though, there was a landslide at Las Delicias that destroyed a small part of the farm and took a bunch of trees with it. The area destroyed by the landslide was left untouched for many years until, one day, a coffee picker working at the farm noticed a lone coffee tree growing in the dirt. He went over to it, and found that the coffee cherries smelled exactly like peaches! He brought this tree to the attention of the Menendez’, who then decided to keep it growing, just for fun.
It wasn’t until the 2000s, when the farm transitioned to speciality coffee, that they decided to cultivate and replant a small group of these trees, to see if there was quality to be found in the cup. To their joy, there was! Today, they produce around 1000 lbs of this peach variety, and we were lucky enough to get most of it.
Nerdy Coffee Stuff -
This coffee was grown at an altitude of 1700m, at the highest part of Las Delicias. After only ripe coffee cherries were picked, they were brought down the mountain to the wet mill, where they were depulped and mechanically washed. Finally, the seeds were dried on patios for around 14 days.
The peach variety is an heirloom Ethiopian variety, although we are not entirely sure which part of Ethiopia it originates from. This variety gives us beautiful honey and stone fruit flavours, somewhat reminiscent of an Ethiopian coffee.
Traceability -
We brought this coffee to the US via the Menendez Family’s own importing company, Willamette Trading, and cupped it at an 88.5. We paid $6.50 per pound.
- The commodity price of coffee when we bought this was $0.98
Brewing Information -
Filter Coffee - This is quite a versatile coffee when brewed as a filter. We have been enjoying it on the V60, as it highlights some of the more delicate florals and stone fruit notes that make this coffee so wonderful. At higher ratios above 1:16 peach, apricot and floral honey become the star.
We’ve really been digging this coffee closer to 1:15, though, and even down to 1:14. Here the incredible tactile that this coffee has comes to the front, alongside butterscotch, honeycomb and milk chocolate.
Espresso - As espresso, this coffee is all about two things - sweetness, and tactile. We’ve been pulling it at or just above a 1:2 ratio (20g in, 40-42g out). Here that tactile is slick and creamy, complex and drinkable. Notes of butterscotch and caramel dominate, with a balanced citrus brightness. Simply delightful!