The Mierisch Family are one of our longest standing Direct Trade partners with an established reputation for producing exceptional coffee. With farms located across Honduras and Nicaragua, each year they look to evolve their approach to coffee production, from seed to harvest. This is the story of the Yellow Pacas told by Erwin Mierisch Jr.
"We actually obtained our seed stock of the Yellow Pacas from the natural regression of our Yellow Pacamara trees in our nursery over the years. The Pacamara varietal, which is a cross between a Pacas (a dwarf mutation of Bourbon) and Maragogype, is still a genetically unstable variety. Meaning that around 10 to 12% of the Pacamara trees, regress back to either Pacas or Maragogype in the nursery. We weren't able to plant a lot of this variety on our farms due to that low percentage of regression, therefore we had to slowly build up our repertoire of Yellow Pacas trees. Initially we started with around 100 trees and slowly went adding more and more each year.
The plot located in San Jose was planted in 2015, along with also being planted in our farm Santa Lucia in Honduras that same year. Pacas, either red or yellow, always do extremely well in Cup of Excellence (a prestigious competition and auction for high quality coffees) Honduras, this was another reason we were eager to start planting this variety in both origins. Pacas is not as common in Nicaragua, with producers favouring its cousin, Bourbon, or its derivatives such as Red Catuai and Caturra.
Pacas is susceptible to all diseases, but has decent yield production, similar to Red Catuai. The similar shape and stature of the Pacas tree to the Red Catuai actually leads us to work them both similarly. Where we feel it truly differs from the Red Catuai is in the cup profile. The Yellow Pacas is much more vibrant and complex. This year the Yellow Pacas has blown us away with its potential in both origins we work in, and we cannot wait to continue to see it develop its full potential."
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