A genuinely cool new project launched today by our friends and partner at MadCap Coffee Company. It’s called the “Varietal Series” and it offers eager tasters a chance to try 8 single varieties of coffee –ย Caturra, Pacamara, Orange Bourbon, Yellow Bourbon, Typica, Bourbon, Elefante and Pacas – all grown by the Rodriguez family in Apaneca, El Salvador.
Of those varieties, the Elefante type is the rarest – we did a feature on MadCap’s Elefante back in 2012, calling it a “must-slurp coffee for Spring” on account of some of the delicious sampling we were privy to. We’re definitely exciting to see Elefante return in this varietal project setting.
This project is also clearly very meaningful and exciting for the folks at MadCap, representing a kind of 5 year demarcation for the roaster. Coffee from the Rodriguez family – El Porvenir, grown by Gloria Rodriguez – was among the very first MadCap purchased and roasted back in 2008. MadCap green coffee buyer Ryan Knapp has been developing a fruitful relationship withย Gloria, Majo, Luis and Roberto Rodriguez ever since, and this “Varietal Series” offering is kind of the grand culmination of that working relationship.
This style of variety project is extraordinarily rare; it brings to mind some offerings we’ve seen that highlighted Aida Battle’s various processing methods at her own farm in El Salvador, including the multi-process series by Blue Bottle Coffee that was featured at our Cupping California event last August. It also echoes something we heard extolled tirelessly by Irish barista champion Colin Harmon and Salvadoran barista champion William Hernandez at the World Barista Championship in Melbourne: El Salvador is the world’s most progressive coffee growing country, home to many inventive and dedicated producers who are pushing the early stages of what’s in your cup to new and exciting heights. Projects like this one from the Rodriguez family and MadCap provide more evidence that there is some very special work being done right now in El Salvador.
If you interest is piqued, act quickly, as there are only 150 “Varietal Series” packages available. Much more information can be found via MadCap Coffee online.ย
