El Salvador - Los Angeles

This excellent coffee comes to us from Finca Los Angeles, a beautiful 23 manzana farm planted with only Pacamara, situated in the Ahuachapan mountain range in the west of El Salvador. The farm has been under Sigfredo Corado, a retired professor of Agronomy from the National School of Agriculture, for 10 years. Since he took on the farm they have used no herbicides to help replenish the soil to give a good base for growing coffee once again. The farm is broken into 23 Manzanas with approximately 3000 trees in each section, and is beautifully divided with shade trees and wind barriers to protect the trees. The farm is managed on a day to day basis by graduates from the technical school, located on the sister farm of Finca Noruega

Part of the Los Naranjos group headed by Sigfredo, Finca Los Angeles is part of the Renacer Program (Reborn in Spanish), which is a technical coffee field school and educational program for producers in the area to learn about better farm management practices. This program is funded by Raices (Roots) and supported by Catholic Relief Services in El Salvador.

The Technical field school is led by Sigfredo with 6 field technicians to help small to medium producers in the area, by focusing on best farm practices that are restorative for the land and soil, as well as beneficial for the yield and quality of the coffee. 

Classes are held twice a month for the students, and throughout the year there are 3 modules focusing on the 4 R's the program have developed for soil health: 

Right Source. Right Dose. Right Place. Right Moment.

Since 2021, they have had 60 students and at the technical the students work on test plots where they can implement the knowledge gained in class before applying it to their own farms. Finca Noruega is 43 Manzanas planted with a range of varieties from bourbon to gesha.

The coffee is selectively harvested at Finca Los Angeles and from here it is taken to the wet mill and drying beds at Beneficio San Rafael, located between the two hills of El Pilon and Cerro Aguila at 1450 miles above sea level. During the harvest this area the size of a football field becomes filled with drying beds for all the coffees that come from the Finca Los Angeles and Noruega.

The Pacamara lot is washed and floated before then being pulped and left to ferment in tiled tanks for around 24 to 36 hours. 

After this, the coffee is washed in fresh water to remove the remaining mucilage and then taken to the raised beds to dry for 15 to 20 days, being turned regularly to ensure even drying until the desired moisture content is reached.

Black honey processed coffee is a unique coffee processing method that originated in Costa Rica and unlike washed or natural processing, black honey processing involves partially fermenting coffee beans (at farm level) in their pulp, rather than washing it off. The beans are harvested, spread out on raised beds to dry and naturally ferment, before being washed and prepared for export. The pulp of the cherry contains the sweet tasting flavours, and over time these soak in to the bean, creating rich sweetness and complexity