Some coffees begin with a purchase from a green coffee supplier. Our Yellow Pacamara began with seeds, a piece of land on our family farm and Alejandro’s curiosity about what they might become.
We grow this yellow-fruiting Pacamara at Finca Argentina, our farm near Apaneca, El Salvador. When a harvest is ready and we bring a lot to Calgary, we roast a limited amount at Crickle Creek. In between releases, the trees are still there, growing the next crop with the help of the people who care for them.
What is Yellow Pacamara coffee?
Yellow Pacamara, or Pacamara Amarillo as we often call it, is our yellow-fruiting selection of the Pacamara Arabica variety. Its cherries turn golden yellow when ripe rather than the red colour many people associate with ripe coffee cherries.
Pacamara was developed from a cross between Pacas and Maragogipe. It can produce unusually large beans and has the potential for exceptional cup quality. That potential is why farmers are interested in it; it isn’t a guarantee that every lot will taste the same. World Coffee Research also notes that Pacamara is susceptible to coffee leaf rust, one of the practical considerations behind growing it.
For our family, it’s more than an interesting variety name. Alejandro sought out red and yellow Pacamara seeds after tasting coffees from neighbouring farms. He chose a higher section of Finca Argentina for the planting, and the years between that decision and a coffee we could share taught us plenty about patience.
Alejandro tells the fuller planting story in his article about Pacamara on our family farm. This page is about the Yellow Pacamara trees that grew from that project and the coffees we make from their harvests.
Where do we grow it?
Our Yellow Pacamara grows in the Apaneca region of western El Salvador, on our family farm at approximately 1,300–1,350 metres above sea level in the area described for these lots.
That location is part of the story, but the farm team matters just as much. They tend the trees, watch the fruit develop and select cherries when they are ready. A yellow-fruiting variety calls for attention to its own signs of ripeness. The familiar instruction to “pick the red cherries” doesn’t work here.
Different parts of a farm, different flowering times and the weather of a particular year can all change how a harvest develops. We taste the resulting lots before deciding what to bring to Calgary.
What does our Yellow Pacamara taste like?
It depends on the harvest and the lot. That’s an answer I’m happy to give, even if it makes writing a permanent list of tasting notes less convenient.
Our 2025 naturally processed Yellow Pacamara reminded us of passion fruit, pineapple and grapefruit, with a creamy feel and balanced fruit brightness. Those notes describe what we perceived in that coffee. No fruit was added, and I wouldn’t promise that the next harvest will have precisely the same profile.
When a new lot arrives, its product description should tell you what we found when we tasted that coffee. If the notes sound like your sort of cup, give it a try. If you taste something different, I’d love to hear about it.
How is Yellow Pacamara processed?
The processing method can vary by lot. After picking, cherries must be processed and dried carefully before the coffee can be milled, shipped as green coffee and roasted.
For example, our 2025 Yellow Pacamara lot was naturally processed and patio-dried by our partners at Coop Los Ausoles. With natural processing, the whole cherry dries with the coffee seeds inside. It takes monitoring and movement of the cherries to encourage even drying.
We also use raised beds for natural processing at our farm. That article shows another part of our work with natural coffees; it should not be read as saying the 2025 Yellow Pacamara lot was dried on those raised beds. The details for a future Yellow Pacamara release belong on that lot’s product page.
Is our Yellow Pacamara available year-round?
No. Our farm-grown Yellow Pacamara is a seasonal coffee. We bring a limited amount of each harvest to Calgary, so availability depends on how much we have that year. Once it sells out, we wait for the next harvest to be picked, processed, evaluated and shipped before we can roast it again.
Current availability: The 2025 release has sold out. We’ll share the details of the next Yellow Pacamara lot after we’ve tasted it and know when it will be ready. Update this single line whenever a new release opens or sells out.
If you’d like to try a coffee from our family farm while you wait, check the current availability of El Salvador Bourbon. It has its own character: dark chocolate and brown sugar with a gentle red-grape note.
I like that Yellow Pacamara gives us something to look forward to without pretending every harvest is interchangeable. The trees stay rooted in Apaneca. Each season, the people caring for them do the work. Then we taste what that year has given us and, when we can, bring some of it home to Calgary for you.
From our family farm to your cup,
Adriana