As some of you may know, there are three famous coffee estates in the world that hold independent auction for their upscale specialty coffee. They are Finca El Injerto in Huehuetenago, Guatemala, Santa Felisa in Acatenango, Guatemala and Hacienda La Esmeralda in Boquete, Panama.
In order to provide and source superior quality/taste specialty coffee for our customers, Belux Coffee proudly joined the online auction to bid Santa Felisa’s Pacamara natural processing green beans on June. 7, 2016.
The moment we registered for the auction, we discussed with Antonio from Santa Felisa to send us auction and non-auction samples so we are able to compare the difference between those two. After cupping the coffee, we were really sold by the Pacamara Natural/Slow Dry (they call it slow dry because it took more than 30 days to dry in the African beds). The flavor is outstanding with sweet citrus, complexity, clean and wonderful balance with hints of floral/fruit aromas. So we made our decision to bid on Pacamara Natural. (others are also fantastic but we wanted to do one at a time!)
It was a very special experience during the auction to see coffee buyers from all over the world to bid on green beans. A little inside story to share about this auction - we are the one to call the auction agent to start the auction after waiting for 10 minutes after 6pm as they didn’t realize it should have been started! We are also the first bidder to put the offer in (which may not be the smartest thing to do!) and compete to the last for the Pacamara Natural that we love. After almost 4 hours of bidding, we finally made it happen, we are the highest bidder of Red Pacamara Natural. The lot is only 200 lbs this year so please contact us if you would like to try this fabulous Pacamara.
Facts about Pacamara
Pacamara is a hybrid between the Bourbon mutation Pacas and Maragogype - where it gets its name from the first 4 letters of each of its parents. It was bred in El Salvador in 1958 in order to achieve a Typica|Typica variety that produces larger beans. Due to its unique profile and limited quantities of the Pacamara, This year Santa Felisa offered Red Pacamara-K72 and Elixir-Red Pacamara Natural/Slow Dry.
Facts about Santa Felisa
Santa Felisa is established in 1904 by Mr. Trinidad E. Cruz, located in Acatenango, Guatemala. For 112 years of history, Santa Felisa have come a long path keeping its original values of integrity, quality and loyalty. Now this farm is operated by the fourth generation of coffee growers: Anabella and Antonio Meneses. These values have led them through the always-changing trends of the market. Santa Felisa are not just coffee producers, they are specialty coffee growers.
Santa Felisa focus on microlots by variety and the mill process thirty plus varieties. And more new ones are being watched agronomically and cupped at lab so those can be offered to the most demand palates in the near future. The varieties available now are: Red Typica, Red Bourbon, Red Pache, Red Geisha, Red Caturra, Red Pacamara, Yellow Catuai.
Santa Felisa is also famous for more than seven different green beans processing and the most popular processing are -
* Full Wash: Clean and refined
* K72: Lingering finish, sharpy acidity
* Orange Honey: Mild acidity, full body, delicate sweetness
* Naturals: Fruity, full body, mild acidity, full sweetness and complex