El Salvador Apaneca Las Ninfas Crown Jewel

Intro

This batch of Salvadoran was harvested on the Las Ninfas finca, which, along with its sibling farm Santa Leticia, are both full of productive coffee trees and brimming with beauty.

Passed down through the family, the farms were originally founded in 1870 by noted statesman Francisco Menéndez Valdevieso, a native of the region, a general, provisional president of the country, as well as the founder of El Salvador’s educational system. Ricardo Valdivieso is his great-grandson and fourth-generation coffee farmer. In addition to coffee and preserved forest, the farms contain archaeological ruins from the Mayan era and Ricardo’s daughter Monica runs an eco-tourist lodge on Santa Leticia.

Roast

We roasted this batch of El Salvador Apaneca Las Ninfas to a full medium roast. Depending on the grind and brewing method, this Salvadoran Crown Jewel can produce notes of Blood Orange, Nectarine, White Grape, Cocoa, Brown Sugar, Dark Chocolate to that of Honeydew, Pineapple, Pie Crust, Brown Sugar, Milk Chocolate.

Brewing

As with most Top-Shelf coffees, we suggest using the pour-over method to maximized the aroma and flavor of this Crown Jewel coffee using a 1:16 coffee to water ratio with the water between 200F and 205F. Once grounds are placed in the filter, pre-soak grounds by covering with water for ~30sec to allow for blooming, then finish with either a steady pour or a couple of short pours to complete the brewing process.

Brew Observations / Analysis

Brew Analysis by Alex Taylor, Royal Coffee

I was pretty excited to drink some more of this coffee after cupping my roasts! For the first time in years, I bought myself a new coffee toy, the new Bloom dripper from Espro; I figured this week’s brew analysis would be a good opportunity to put it through the works.

I wanted to try to push the extraction a little bit on these brews, so I ground pretty fine and used an additional pulse pour. In addition to my brew with the new Bloom dripper, I made a v60, for the sake of having something familiar to compare to. The Bloom brew finished in 3:10, and the v60 at 4:45 (a very long brew, by my standards, but I knew I had ground fine and it was a bigger brew than typical, so not alarming). Despite the wildly different brew times, the specs for these two brews were almost identical! TDS’s of 1.4 and 1.41, and extraction yields of 21.24% and 21.28%! There were some subtle differences in taste though.

The Bloom brew (the quicker of the two) was a bit juicier; we picked up on pineapple and fresh blackberry up front, and lots of brown sugar sweetness, with a milk chocolatey sweetness at the end. The v60 also had some intense flavors, but it was a little unbalanced and muddled – not surprising considering the long brew. Lots of honeydew, citrus, peach, and white grape up front followed by maple syrup and dark chocolate with a super velvety finish. Delicious! This coffee was great as a pourover, but I think it could really shine as an espresso option, too; there’s tons of sweetness packed in there!

Producer Background

El Salvador Apaneca Las Ninfas Raised Bed Natural Pacamara Crown Jewel is sourced from Finca Las Ninfas which is located near the town of Apaneca within the department of Ahuachapan, El Salvador. Finca Las Ninfas is owned and operated by Ricardo Valdivieso, a third generation coffee farmer, and his family. Ricardo’s grandfather purchased the land in 1870. Finca Las Ninfas was passed down to Ricardo during a time of great turmoil in El Salvador’s history. At the peak of conflict in the 1980s, Ricardo came face to face with a firing squad in defense of his family’s land. He was not shot but spent many years in exile before he was able to return to Finca Las Ninfas. In addition to coffee, Ricardo and his daughter Monica operate a beautiful hotel and restaurant at their other farm called Finca Santa Leticia. Mayan artifacts that Ricardo’s father discovered on the property have also been preserved as an archaeological site for visitors to enjoy.