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Bean: Bourbon, Honey Washed, Finca Esmeralda, Ahuachapan, El Salvador.
Shop: Boot (El Salvador Esmeralda Honey), Baarn, The Netherlands
Boot – El Salvador Esmeralda Honey: Background information.
The limited edition filter version of the El Salvador Esmeralda Honey comes from the famous roaster ‘Boot’ in the Netherlands. To go back to the root of this coffee we travel to Ahuachapan in El Salvador, to Finca Esmeralda. This farm is located at 1300-1400 meters above sea level and covers around 10 acres. The farm is owned by father Oscar Murgas, Mother Maira Gutierrez and their daughters Marai Sarai and Rocio Veronica. Many of you will have heard of this finca because they have won two ‘Cup of Excellence’ awards in the recent years:
Cup of Excellence el Salvador 2014, no. 9.
Best of El Salvador Competition 2016, no. 11, with a score of 87,69 (replacement of the Cup of Excellence in 2016).
This Limited Edition El Salvador Esmeralda Honey consists out of the Bourbon variety and has undergone the Honey Washed process.
Boot – El Salvador Esmeralda Honey: Opening the package.
The package of Boot always comes in a luxurious gold colour with a degassing valve and zip-lock mechanism to keep the coffee fresh. I waited for 2.5 weeks before reviewing this coffee so that the flavours and aromas will be at their best. Opening the package is a treat; the soft scent of brown sugar and crushed grapes flows into my nose. The bean is a light roast and eating it gives off a blossom and floral (jasmine) sensation and when you chew it for a while the sugar seems to come back into the pallet as well. Lovely! I grind the coffee for my Hario V60 and the ground coffee also gives off the dreamy scent of blossom, sugar and fruits. Time to brew!
Boot – El Salvador Esmeralda Honey: The tasting.
I review this coffee with a 20gr/300ml recipe at 85 degrees. I find that this recipe gave me the best result for reviewing this coffee. While I was blooming and brewing the coffee I was pleasantly surprised about the floral and fruit notes that came off of the brew. It was soft to the nose and made me think of sweet blossoms of the orange tree. The fruity notes were like ripe plum and grapes. These notes while brewing make me really excited and I could hardly wait for the brewing to be completed.
I poured in the brew and let it cool a little to give the sweet aspects of the coffee time to develop. The scent changed over time and a clear brown sugar note was added to the aroma. When taking a sip the brown sugar was clearly there and I even thought about caramelised sugar. Slurping oxygen inside my mouth, after which I started to let the coffee roll through my mouth, other flavours appeared as well. The plum flavour accompanied the brown sugar as if they were married, soft tropical notes supported these flavours with a faint floral note at the same time. It took me a couple of brews to discover all of them, but what a treat it is when you get to notice them all in the same brew. The beautiful thing about the El Salvador Esmeralda Honey is that there is no sourness or bitterness to this brew. The acidity could be described as bright and is just right. The mouthfeel is best described as ‘dreamy’; you know that there is coffee in your mouth but there is no heaviness to it at all.
Boot – El Salvador Esmeralda Honey: The verdict.
Let me start off with the bad thing about this coffee. The problem with coffees like these is that it is a limited edition. If you are too late, you will never get to taste it again. Fortunately this one is still available at Boot’s website for now. The El Salvador Esmeralda Honey Limited Edition is a rich coffee with so many levels of aromas and flavours. Brown sugar, Plum, Blossom, Grape and even hints of tropical fruits…it is all in there. The acidity is spot on, the mouthfeel is just awesome so I guess that there is no reason for not trying this coffee. I also made an Aeropress brew with this coffee and the results were the same except that the fruity notes were more apparent in the brew. So even on the Aeropress you have a winner.