Pacas
A naturally occurring dwarf mutation of Bourbon identified in El Salvador, agronomically similar in purpose to Caturra. A parent variety of Pacamara.
In short
Pacas is a natural mutation of Bourbon that makes the plant grow small. It was discovered in 1949 on a farm owned by the Pacas family in the Santa Ana region of El Salvador, and it is the Salvadoran counterpart of Brazil's Caturra and Costa Rica's Villa Sarchi.
It is a medium-yielding variety of good, not exceptional, quality potential, and it is very susceptible to leaf rust. Its lasting importance is as a parent: crossed with Maragogipe, it gave Pacamara.
The same accident, three times
Sourced
The World Coffee Research catalogue describes Pacas as a natural mutation of Bourbon, similar to Caturra in Brazil and Villa Sarchi in Costa Rica. In all three a change in a single gene makes a Bourbon plant grow compact, and in all three a farmer or researcher noticed the odd small trees and kept them.
The catalogue credits the selection to the Instituto Salvadoreño de Investigaciones del Café, the Salvadoran coffee research institute, and places the variety in the Bourbon-related part of the Bourbon and Typica group.
What the catalogue records
Sourced
| Variable | Typical range | What moving it does |
|---|---|---|
| Stature | Dwarf, compact | |
| Lineage | Natural mutation of Bourbon | |
| Leaf tip colour | Green | |
| Bean size | Average | |
| Yield potential | Medium | |
| Quality potential at high altitude | Good | |
| Optimal altitude | High | |
| Nutrition requirement | Medium | |
| Coffee leaf rust | Susceptible | |
| Coffee berry disease | Susceptible | |
| Nematodes | Susceptible | |
| First production | Year 3 | |
| Planting density | 5,000–6,000 plants per hectare |
As listed in the World Coffee Research catalogue, which summarises the variety as standard quality in Central America with very high susceptibility to leaf rust.
Why a farmer would plant it, and why fewer do
CoffeeHQ explanation
The case for Pacas is the case for any compact variety. Small trees can be planted about half as densely again as tall Bourbon, they bear a year earlier, and all the fruit is within reach of a picker on a steep slope. Its nutrition requirement is rated medium, lower than Caturra's or Villa Sarchi's, which matters to a grower who cannot afford much fertiliser.
The case against is rust. A variety with no resistance, planted densely, is exposed when an epidemic arrives, as one did across Central America in the 2010s. That is the reason replanting in the region has moved towards resistant varieties.
Pacas among its relatives
Sourced
- Bourbon — The tall parent. Pacas is the same plant in a smaller frame, rated a step lower for quality potential.
- Caturra — The Brazilian version of the same mutation, found some thirty years earlier and rated high for nutrition requirement where Pacas is medium.
- Villa Sarchi — The Costa Rican version. The catalogue rates its beans below average in size where Pacas is average.
- Pacamara — The offspring of Pacas and Maragogipe: compact like Pacas, with Maragogipe's very large bean.
What the name tells a drinker
Tendency, not a guarantee
Not a great deal. Pacas is usually described as tasting much like the Bourbon it came from, and the catalogue's rating of good puts it with Caturra and Villa Sarchi and below the tall varieties. On a bag from El Salvador it is mostly evidence of an older planting that has not been replaced.
What to do next
- Pacamara — What breeders made by crossing Pacas with a giant.
- Bourbon — The lineage all three dwarf mutations came from.
- Species and varieties — How mutations, crosses and hybrids fit together.
- Become a coffee expert — A structured programme from the plant and its processing to roasting, water and tasting.
Where Pacas is documented in the atlas
Only countries CoffeeHQ has written an entry for, and only where a document it has read names Pacas there. This is not a list of everywhere it is grown.
- Nicaragua. Listed among the other common varieties in the USDA attaché's 2026 report, which gives no share for it. Source: Nicaragua: Coffee Annual (NU2026-0003).
- Honduras. Grown in Honduras, the catalogue says, where the coffee institute introduced it in 1974. Source: Coffee Varieties Catalog: arabica and robusta entries, with the histories of each.
- El Salvador. Found in 1949 on a farm owned by the Pacas family in the Santa Ana region, the catalogue records, with selection by the Salvadoran research institute from 1960. It says, without a date, that Pacas accounts for about a quarter of the country's production. Source: Coffee Varieties Catalog: arabica and robusta entries, with the histories of each.
Parent varieties
Learn it as a course
The Coffee Expert lesson Species and varieties covers this ground in order, with exercises you can do at home.