San Ana Volcano La Reforma Manor in El Salvador introduces the advantages of growing coffee in El Salvador

The Alvarez family has been making coffee in the hills of Mount Santa Ana in the western part of the country for more than 100 years for four generations. Fertile volcanic soil and mild climate provide ideal conditions for coffee cultivation.

The Finca La Reforma owned by the Alvarez family covers an area of more than 36 hectares, mainly growing red bourbon varieties. Coffee trees are planted in shade trees, which means they are planted in higher local shade. The picking is done entirely by hand.

Recently, yellow and pink bourbon varieties have been planted, as well as a small number of SL28 from Kenya. This limited availability constitutes micro-batches that we can purchase.

After strict manual picking, the batch is prepared according to the solarization process. It is fermented on an elevated bed: cherries are often flipped to control their fermentation and are covered during the hottest times of the day and overnight.

When cherries reach the required residual humidity (about 11%), they are processed in a drying plant called El Borbollon, which removes dried peel and mucus as well as parchment. Then the raw coffee was packed in a 30kg Grain Pro bag and delivered to our laboratory.

We use the cup test method to evaluate the flavor of beans. After a large number of tests, we chose a very delicate baking method to make the acidity of this cup of coffee similar to that of the pomegranate, thus significantly increasing the complexity of the cup. When mixed with V60, the coffee has exotic fruit yellow and nectarine sweetness.

Country of origin: El Salvador

Area: Santa Ana Volcano

Farm: La Reforma- Alvarez family

Altitude: 1350-1450 m

Variety: SL28

Processing method: sun treatment

Cup test flavor: yellow kiwifruit, pomegranate, nectarine