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El Carmen Geisha Natural-El Salvador

Located at an altitude of 1300 meters above sea level, El Carmen Manor is one of the main specialty coffee producing areas in Central America. The estate has been cultivated by the Alfaro family for more than a century.

El Carmen is located in the center of El Salvador's main forest "conservation road", which is part of the Central American biological corridor system, stretching from Mexico to Panama. In El Salvador, more than 80% of the country's coffee is produced in the shade of trees, and this ecosystem is mainly built in coffee forests. For this reason, coffee farms like El Carmen play an important role, providing refuge for hundreds of species of migratory and native birds found in this part of the world.

The estate was founded in the mid-19th century, when Antonio Jose Alfaro bought a piece of land near the village of Ataco and began to produce coffee. The village of Ataco means "rising spring" in the native Navat language. His son, Augustine Alfaro, founder of the Salvadoran National Coffee Company (Salvadoran National Coffee Company), followed in his father's footsteps to make El Carmen one of El Salvador's leading exporters. His efforts were continued by Antonio Alfaro, the third generation leader of the coffee family, inherited today by Fernando Alfaro, the fourth generation of coffee growers in the family.

El Carmen is an extremely well-run professional manor with rigorous and meticulous management, paying great attention to maintaining the identity of each batch, from the moment the coffee and cherries are harvested to the moment when the green beans are ready for export. The coffee on the estate is produced under about 60% of the shade, which is necessary for coffee to mature evenly. Before the rainy season, shaded trees are trimmed to 40% shade to get the light needed for new leaves to grow. Most of the land on the farm is bourbon (including the very special orange bourbon, which is a volunteer on the farm, but was later selected and replanted by Fernando) and Pacas; however, he also grows experimental varieties on a small part of the farm, like this geisha.

At harvest, 100% of geisha cherries are picked only when they are fully ripe and float to remove any debris or underweight cherries. Geisha account for only a small part of the overall cultivation of El Carmen, and cherries are handled very carefully in order to optimize the quality of the final product. After that, they are sent to bed in Africa to dry for 21 days, where they are regularly raked (initially every 20 minutes) to ensure that they even dry. They will stay on the clay patio for three to four more days, for a total of about 26 days. Finally, prepare the beans, remove all blemishes and sift them to a uniform size.

In recent years, El Carmen has also expanded into travel services, offering coffee tours and overnight accommodation at the original farm house. As an institution in the region, it has become a symbol of pride in the village of Ataco.

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