La Montanita is a small farm, only 17.5 Hecatares in total, planted entirely with the large-bean Pacamara cultivar. If you are not familiar with it, Pacamara is a cross between a naturally-occuring hybrid Pacas and the so-called "elephant-bean" cultivar, Maragogype (know for it's low-yield trees with huge bean size). The result is a non-traditional cup character with medium body, bright and lively acidity and unusual flavor profiles. The farm was handed down through the Aguilar family. The Aguilars run their own wet-mill so all steps of the coffee cultivation and processing are under the control of the farm (a true Estate coffee). While the farm is not organic certified, like many coffee farms it could be, the Aguilars do not use herbicides and practices manual weed control. They uss organic fertilizers like chicken manure, coffee pulp and they count on nature for insect control. La Montanita is located in the Alotepec Mountain Range and has excellent altitude for coffee (1460 meters, 4790 feet) which accounts for the slowly-maturing, dense coffee seeds and better acidity in the cup. But in the case of Pacamara, a lot of the cup character comes from this unusual cultivar. La Montaņita placed several times in the Cup of Excellence, including #2 place in 2006. We actually offered this coffee way back in '04, when we bought the CoE lot. This year we bought the coffee as a "National Winner" from the CoE because for a reason I can't figure out, it didn't make the auction. The cup is really outstanding! The dry fragrance from the grounds is unusual, with molasses syrup, aromatic wood, raisin, dried plum. Adding hot water, the wet aromatics have a lot of spice, cinnamon stick in particular, but there are also lush tropical floral notes. For a Pacamara, it has very good body and exceptional balance, a darker flavor profile than expected, with suggestions of Indonesia-like foresty flavors. Still, it has a very fine acidity, with strawberry-like brightness, and sweet rhubarb flavor in the finish.



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