El Salvador Finca La Esperanza Natural
One Real 16oz. Pound
Finca La Esperanza Natural is the most exciting Central American coffee we have cupped in a decade. Let that sink in for a moment!
The natural process involves perfectly ripened cherries being dried in the sun while still covered in sweet coffee mucilage or "honey."
Natural process coffees are famous for their raw fruity flavor, and tasting Finca La Esperanza Natural is an incredible and unforgettable experience.
Finca La Esperanza is located on the San Salvador volcano's lower slopes and spans the El Boqueron National Park border, affording the farm ample soil nutrition and canopy.
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.
Aroma: The freshly ground beans are fruity, smelling of cherries and blueberries covered in spicy ground cinnamon and sweet cream.
Body: Full, velvety mouthfeel, juicy high cordial cherry notes, and dark chocolate.
Finish: Quick, clean finish with a lingering flavor of toasted sweet bread.
About this Coffee
REGION: Quezaltepeque, La Libertad Department, El Salvador
ALTITUDE: 1000 - 1450 meters above sea level
PROCESS: Pulp natural, patio dried in full sun
VARIETY: Bourbon, Catimor hybrids
HARVEST: November - February
SOIL: Volcanic loam
CERTIFICATION: Conventional
The Belismelis-Alvarez family
Like many European arrivals in the 19th century, Don Emilio Belismelis settled in the Santa Ana department and adopted coffee production as a vocation and passion.
From the 1880s until the 1930s, El Salvador's coffee sector boomed. At times, coffee 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.
Families like Don Emilio's grew their holdings considerably during this time, and many subsequent generations were born into land-based wealth and influence.
Today, El Salvador's coffee sector is far more modest than at its peak 100 years ago, and families like the Belismelis-Alvarez family need to be intensely involved in farm renovations and ecological diversity to maintain their land.
While coffee leaf rust outbreaks have devastated the bourbon populations throughout El Salvador, La Esperanza has kept most of its original cultivars healthy and productive through integrated farming, fertilizing, and renovation practices.
For these large volume naturals from their La Esperanza farm, the family has partnered with Los Volcanes Coffee, which processes the farm's cherry in Ahuachapán and oversees the blending of day lots throughout harvest to maintain a fruit-forward but balanced and chocolatey cup profile.