KAHVI of the Month | EL SALVADOR | MEDIUM | Cherry Juice, Raspberry & Chocolate

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January: EL SALVADOR (Natural)

Region - Quezaltepeque, La Libertad Department, El Salvador

Grower - The Belismelis-Alvarez Family | Finca La Esperanza

Elevation - 1000 - 1450 MASL

Soil - Volcanic Loam

Variety - Bourbon, Catimor hybrids

Process - Natural

Roast Level - Medium 

Cupping Notes - Cherry juice, raspberry, chocolate

The extended Belismelis-Alvarez family manages 15 separate estates in El Salvador, totaling almost 900 hectares. Descending from Spanish settlers who arrived in the mid-1800s, the current generation is the sixth to be involved in coffee farm management.

Like many European arrivals in the 19th century, Don Emilio Belismelis settled in the department of Santa Ana and adopted coffee production as a vocation and passion. From the 1880s until the 1930s, El Salvador’s coffee sector boomed. Coffee at times was the country’s sole export, a source of great wealth (and a large portion of US coffee consumption), thanks to El Salvador’s early liberalist embrace of the crop and its widespread investment in export infrastructure.

The operation is based out of the San Miguel mill, in Ahuachapán. La Esperanza’s daily cherry pickings are transported here to sun-dry on the mill’s patios. Each individual day lot is cupped in the Antigua lab. Over the course of the harvest profiles are established, and larger lots are compiled for export.  The family focuses on relationships, taking care of its family, the workers and the land that provides their livelihood.

This naturally processed coffee is a bright cup, nice body with a sweet berry profile.