Jorge Raul Rivera - Natural

ROAST | LIGHT MEDIUM

ORIGIN | CHALATENANGO, EL SALVADOR

NOTES | SPICED ORANGE, APRICOT, DRIED CHERRY, MERLOT

We are pretty big fans of Jorge Raul Rivera and his stunning Pacamara coffees - as evidenced by his regular appearance on our menu throughout the year. This time around, we thought to ourselves: What could be better than a new Jorge Raul Rivera release? And the answer, of course, is TWO Jorge Raul Rivera releases! We're offering two coffees from this incomparable producer in tandem so that you folks at home have the opportunity to taste them side-by-side, developing a better understanding of how processing methods influence flavor profile.

These two coffees are the same variety, were grown at the same elevation on the same farm, and were each tended by the same careful set of hands - but they taste remarkably different from one another! This coffee, a blend of Lots #22 and #23 from the latest harvest, underwent Jorge's protocol for natural processing, and it is full of orchard fruit flavors and red wine characteristics. The other underwent the ever-meticulous honey processing method, and it is vibrant, tropical, and clean. While this natural release is warming our souls in the midst of winter, its honey counterpart makes us long for summer.

We invite you to join us here at the cupping table and interact with both of these coffees together - not pitting them against one another, but appreciating them each more fully because of their unique differences in spite of so many similarities. Kind of like siblings, actually...

Processing: Before undergoing the traditional drying process for natural coffees, this lot underwent 23 hours of aerobic fermentation in a tile-lined tank. After this short fermentation, the coffee cherries were laid out in thin layers on raised drying beds until they achieved a moisture content below 20% - usually 2-4 weeks, depending on the weather. 

In the cup: Winter citrus and orchard fruit flavors abound in this cup - we taste seasonally savvy spiced oranges, apricots, and dried cherries as we sip. It finishes like a soul-warming red wine, such as Merlot - and that wine-y characteristic serves to showcase the effects of that aforementioned fermentation protocol. This coffee warms us from the inside out and is best sipped while curled up next to a fireplace, novel in hand.

Producer | Jorge Raul Rivera

Farm | Finca Santa Rosa

Process | Natural

Variety | Pacamara

Elevation | 1700 masl