History & Origins
The Pacas family is one of El Salvador’s most consequential coffee dynasties, with a multi-generational presence in the country’s coffee sector dating to the late 19th century. Their primary holdings are centered in the Santa Ana department, within the volcanic highlands of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec range—the same landscape that produces the bulk of El Salvador’s specialty-grade Arabica.
The family’s most significant contribution to global coffee genetics occurred in 1949, when Fernando Alberto Pacas Figueroa discovered an unusual coffee plant growing on Finca San Rafael, the family’s primary estate. The plant exhibited a compact growth habit, shorter internodes, and higher productivity than the surrounding Bourbon trees from which it had evidently mutated. Researchers subsequently confirmed that the plant was a natural genetic mutation of Bourbon—a single-gene mutation at the Bourbon locus that produces the dwarf plant structure. The variety was formally named Pacas in honor of the family and registered with CATIE (the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center) in Costa Rica.
The Pacas variety spread throughout El Salvador in subsequent decades and became one of the country’s dominant cultivars. A later cross between Pacas and the Ethiopian Maragogipe variety—conducted by researchers at CATIE—produced Pacamara, now a widely recognized specialty variety known for its large bean size and distinctive cup profile. The Pacas family thus has a direct genetic lineage running through two of the most important cultivars in Central American specialty coffee.
Terroir & Growing Conditions
Finca San Rafael and the family’s associated estates are located on the volcanic slopes of Santa Ana Volcano (Ilamatepec), one of three volcanoes forming the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range in western El Salvador. Elevations on the family’s properties range from approximately 1,200 to 1,800 meters above sea level, with the highest-altitude blocks producing the most concentrated and structurally complex lots.
The volcanic soils of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec region are deep, well-drained, and rich in minerals—particularly iron and phosphorus derived from centuries of volcanic activity. The region receives reliable rainfall during the May-to-October wet season and benefits from cloud cover and humidity that moderate temperature extremes during the drying season. Diurnal temperature variation at higher elevations approaches 10–15°C, a condition that slows cherry development and promotes density in the dried seed.
El Salvador’s coffee sector suffered severe setbacks from the coffee leaf rust (roya) epidemic that swept through Central America from 2012 onward, and the Pacas family estates, like all producers in the country, had to navigate significant replanting and variety management decisions in the aftermath. The compact Pacas variety has moderate susceptibility to rust, while the family has incorporated more resistant hybrid varieties into lower-elevation blocks as a hedge against future outbreaks.
Processing & Production
The family estates process coffee using washed, natural, and honey methods, with method selection driven by market demand and the specific character goals for each lot. Traditional wet processing—pulping, fermentation in clean water tanks for 24–36 hours, followed by drying on patios or raised beds—remains the dominant method and produces the clean, structured cup profile that Salvadoran washed coffee is known for.
Honey processing has grown in importance on the estates in response to market demand for intermediate-sweetness profiles. Yellow and red honey lots are dried with varying degrees of mucilage intact, producing cups with more body and sweetness than washed equivalents while maintaining the clean fermentation baseline of the washed method. Natural processing is applied selectively to higher-elevation cherry in seasons when weather conditions permit slow, controlled drying.
The family maintains its own wet mill and drying infrastructure at Finca San Rafael, allowing end-to-end control over processing quality. Lot-level tracking through processing is practiced for specialty-grade production, with separate drying lots maintained for Pacas, Bourbon, and Pacamara cultivars. Export is typically through established relationships with specialty importers and direct buyers in Europe, the United States, and Asia.
Cup Profile & Tasting Notes
The Pacas variety’s cup profile is a defining expression of Salvadoran specialty coffee: structured, approachable, and centered on milk chocolate, red apple, and brown sugar, with a clean, medium body and moderate brightness. At higher elevations on the family estates, acidity sharpens toward citrus and malic expressions, and stone fruit notes—peach, apricot—emerge. The variety’s genetic closeness to Bourbon produces a cup in the same flavor family but with slightly higher sweetness and a cleaner finish at equivalent altitudes.
Pacamara lots from the estate show the variety’s characteristic large-bean density and broader flavor range: tropical fruit, dark chocolate, and sometimes a savory, herbaceous note that sets it apart from more conventionally sweet Central American profiles. These lots are produced in smaller volumes and sold at premium prices through specialty channels.
Honey-processed Pacas expressions amplify the variety’s inherent sweetness, adding caramel and stone fruit complexity while retaining the clean structural character that distinguishes Salvadoran coffee from the heavier natural-processed profiles of other origins. The Pacas family’s century-plus of cultivation experience on these specific soils and microclimates is reflected in the consistency of the lots produced—high quality without the volatility associated with experimental processing or rare cultivar cultivation.