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Pacamara is an arabica variety bred in El Salvador by crossing compact Pacas with giant-beaned Maragogipe. The plant stays compact, the beans are very large, and high-elevation cup quality can be exceptional. It is highly susceptible to coffee leaf rust and is not uniform from one generation to the next. It is not another name for elephant bean.
Pacamara is an arabica variety created in El Salvador. The Salvadoran Institute of Coffee Research (Instituto Salvadoreño de Investigaciones del Café, ISIC) crossed Pacas with Maragogipe, then carried out an incomplete pedigree selection. The name therefore takes the first four letters of each parent.
World Coffee Research places it in the Bourbon-Typica group. The plant is compact. The beans are very large. Yield potential is low, and meaningful harvest commonly begins in the third year. It is highly susceptible to coffee leaf rust, nematodes, coffee berry disease, and Ojo de Gallo (American leaf spot). At high elevation, WCR rates its quality potential as exceptional.
The same catalog adds a warning that matters to buyers: Pacamara is not homogeneous, and plants are not stable from one generation to the next. Origin and processing still have to be read from the rest of the bag. The variety name is not a flavor guarantee.
One parent contributes a compact plant that is easier to space densely; the other contributes very large beans.
Pacas is a natural dwarf mutation of Bourbon, comparable to Caturra in Brazil and Villa Sarchi in Costa Rica. World Coffee Research traces it to a 1949 discovery on a Pacas-family farm in Santa Ana, El Salvador. ISIC began pedigree selection in 1960. Pacas still accounts for about a quarter of El Salvador’s production. Its beans are average in size.
Maragogipe is a natural mutation of Typica, found near the Brazilian city of Maragogipe in 1870. A single dominant gene enlarges the beans, the internodes, and the leaves. The tree is tall and low-yielding. Because of that poor productivity, WCR says Pacamara is often considered a better option.
Coffee Review dates the ISIC experiments to 1958. The Perfect Daily Grind interview says the selected material reached producers in the late 1980s, after about thirty years of work. Those two dates describe the start of breeding and a later release. They are not a single publication year.
Bags sometimes treat Pacamara, Maragogipe, and elephant bean as if they were one coffee. They are not.
World Coffee Research lists both Pacamara and Maragogipe as very large-beaned. Coffee Review notes that Pacamara beans are still generally smaller than Maragogipe. The growth habit is the clearer split: Pacamara is compact; Maragogipe is tall.
A related name, Maracaturra, likely arose from a natural Caturra × Maragogipe cross in Nicaragua. World Coffee Research says that material was never stabilized. It is not Pacamara.
Incomplete selection left a mixed population. World Coffee Research reports that plants are not stable from one generation to the next. Coffee Review estimates that about 10% to 40% of seedlings revert toward one parent, so growers have to rogue plants before they go to the field.
That agronomic messiness shows up in the cup. A lot labeled Pacamara may still lean toward the thinner, woodier side associated with Maragogipe. That is a tendency of an unstable variety, not proof that every surprising cup is a different coffee.
World Coffee Research evaluated yield and rust response at 23 sites in 15 countries. Local results still depend on which rust races are present. Compact spacing is possible, but rust remains a central risk.
WCR’s exceptional rating is a quality-potential score at elevation, not a tasting wheel. The catalog also notes that Pacamara frequently appears among high-placing El Salvador Cup of Excellence lots.
Coffee Review describes all-Pacamara lots as typically deep, savory-sweet, and resonant, sometimes with floral top notes. Washed lots remain the traditional specialty export path; natural-processed Pacamaras can emphasize that savory-floral depth. Those are sample observations, not a promise that every bag will taste the same.
If a bag says Pacamara, expect a Salvadoran-bred large-bean variety with high cup potential and uneven field behavior. Do not assume the bean size will make the coffee heavier, fruitier, or easier to recognize than Bourbon or Caturra.
No. Elephant bean usually means Maragogipe. Pacamara is a Pacas × Maragogipe cross. The plant is compact, and the beans are very large, though typically a bit smaller than Maragogipe.
Yes. Pacas is a Bourbon mutation, and Maragogipe is a Typica mutation. Pacamara carries ancestry from both groups without being either parent.
No. World Coffee Research rates Pacamara's high-elevation quality potential as exceptional and Maragogipe's as very good. Bean size is not a score.
The variety is not uniform. World Coffee Research reports instability from one generation to the next. Coffee Review estimates that about 10% to 40% of seedlings lean back toward a parent.
No. Pacas is one parent and has average-size beans. The two names are not interchangeable on a bag.