Country: El Salvador
Region: Calzontes Arriba
Varietal: Red Bourbon and Pacas
Farm: Santa Maria
Process: Washed
Altitude: 1,350 MASL
Cupping Notes: Red Apple, Nougat, Vanilla
Recommended Roast:City to Full City
Good For:Pour Over, Auto Drip, Full Immersion

Description: Finca Santa Maria is a farm that has been in the Alvarez Family for almost 130 years, originally established by Rafael Alvarez in 1892. I just can’t imagine being Eduardo (the current Alvarez Family patriarch), managing a farm that was started by your great, great grandfather — it’s an understatement, but how cool! Throughout the years, the farm has served as habitation for all sorts of wildlife, and indigenous plant life which serves as shade for the coffee. Santa Maria sits in the Apaneca-Ilamatepec, a biosphere reserve that is home to the oldest volcano in the Central American Volcanic Arc, and over 9,000 acres of nature reserve. With the cool climates, cloud forests, and active volcanos, this region is ripe with signs of specialty coffee production, and the Alvarez Family put it to great use. After harvest this lot was sun dried on raised beds for 18 days.

We couldn’t be happier to share coffee from Santa Maria, the legacy farm of the Alvarez Family. We loved how the arrival sample of this washed lot cupped. It’s an overall delicate and dynamic cup, with flavors of Lemon and Milk Chocolate, sweetness of Orgeat (sweet almond), and a floral note of Orange Blossom.

After cupping this washed lot from Santa Maria, we had to see what other coffees were available from this farm, so be sure to check out the natural lot we were able to get our hands on as well.