Spotlight - Coyote

About COYOTE

When James, KBC’s head brewer, wanted to do a Mexican-themed beer series, I (Paul) immediately thought of Coyote.

I wanted to make sure it was a Kyoto place (ie. Local) and I wanted to ensure that the beans would hail from Central America (as close to Mexico as possible).

FYI, you can find their HP right here (note: Japanese only)

Kadokawa-san, the owner, focuses 100% on beans grown from El Salvador and he actually lived there for over a year and a half. While there, he became a member of the farming community ACOPACA to ensure he could directly see how the beans were selected, picked and then processed. In fact, he still goes back each year for several weeks to choose beans to bring back to Kyoto.

I took James over to Coyote’s Demachiyanagi flagship store and after explaining the type of beers we were going to make and therefore the coffee character we were looking for, Kadokawa-san specifically chose 5 different beans/processes of medium and dark roast variation.

After some sampling, we selected the medium roast Don Jaime Pacas Natural bean. This bean is regularly sold by Coyote in light roast format here, but they were kind of enough to roast it a little more for us to better match with the beer.

Pacas beans derive from the Bourbon varietal, a high-quality Arabica bean found throughout Central and South America. The Pacas varietal was discovered in El Salvador a long time ago. By combining this traditional variety with a slightly modified fermentation process from Don Jaime's refining technique, the coffee results in a complex and rich flavour with a nice underlying sweetness.

This coffee has a bright fruitiness reminiscent of berries and oranges, along with a long, sweet finish that evokes hot chocolate. We thought it perfect for both the Horchata and the Mexican Coffee Stout.