How is the El Salvador Himalaya Coffee Bean Market? Which El Salvador Coffee Brand is Best?

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Pour-over El Salvador coffee: 15g of coffee grounds, medium grind (Fuji ghost-tooth grinder at setting 4), V60 dripper, water temperature 88-89°C. Pour 30g of water first and bloom for 27 seconds. Continue pouring to 105g, then pause. Once the water level in the coffee bed drops to halfway, pour slowly again up to 225g total. Discard the tail end. Water-to-coffee ratio is 1:15, total extraction time 2:00.

Flavor description: red wine acidity, plum, brown sugar, full-bodied mouthfeel, long aftertaste.

El Salvador Finca Himalaya

Country: El Salvador

Estate: Himalaya Estate

Region: Santa Ana

Altitude: 1580-1720 meters

Varieties: Red Bourbon, Typica

Processing Mill: El Divisadero

Flavors: Plum, brown sugar, red wine acidity

Product Information: Manufacturer: Dazhen Coffee FrontStreet Coffee. Address: No. 10 Bao'an Front Street, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou. Ingredients: in-house roasted coffee beans. Shelf life: 30 days. Net weight: 227g. Packaging: bulk coffee beans. Roast level: roasted coffee beans. Origin: El Salvador.

About Project Origin

Sasa Sestic, the 2015 World Barista Champion, launched a green-bean sourcing project called Project Origin with his business team at ONA Coffee. The project works directly with coffee farmers in poor countries and regions to improve their production conditions, and pays purchase prices 20% above fair-trade prices.

The project also aims to strengthen the connection between roasters and farmers, and to guide growers toward cultivating high-quality beans. So far, Sasa has built relationships with coffee growers in eight countries, including Brazil, Panama, India, Ethiopia, El Salvador, and Costa Rica.

Bourbon was originally cultivated on Réunion Island — known as Île Bourbon before 1789. Simply put, Bourbon is a variety within the Arabica species. It generally bears red fruit — Red Bourbon — alongside Yellow Bourbon and Orange Bourbon. Yellow Bourbon yields less but cups better.

Typica (also known as Ti Pika, Di Pika) is among the oldest of the Arabica varieties — the old-type small-grain coffee. Low yielding and difficult to cultivate, it commands far higher prices than ordinary small-grain coffee. Typica originated in southeastern Ethiopia and Sudan and is the most widely planted variety in the Western Hemisphere.

Processing Method: Semi-washed

Himalaya Estate sits in the famous Santa Ana region, on the Apaneca mountain range at 1500 meters, and is one of the few estates managed by Aida Batlle. The main variety planted is Bourbon.

Beans from the estate are washed at the El Divisadero mill in Ataco under the management of Mauricio Salaverria, then dried evenly in sun and moving air on African raised beds. Mauricio inherited the business from his parents and grandparents and has been around coffee since childhood, with a particular focus on specialty coffee cultivation.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you're new to pour-over and ask a seasoned friend for one dripper that's practical, easy to learn, and good-looking, the odds are they'll point you to the V60. Its designer, Hario, was founded in Tokyo in 1921 as a maker of heatproof laboratory glass; the share pot that pairs with pour-over coffee is one of its best-known products. In 2004 Hario redesigned the V60 prototype into the form we know today, named for its distinctive 60° cone and V-shaped ribs, and released it the following year. The cone and 60° angle funnel water toward the center before it drips through, extending contact between water and grounds for fuller extraction of aroma and flavor, while the single large outlet leaves flow rate entirely in the brewer's hands — which flows straight into the cup.

The V60's fast, crisp extraction shines with floral-fruity coffees of the third wave: FrontStreet Coffee's Gotting Cooperative Yirgacheffe with its classic jasmine and citrus, the tropically fruity Natural Hiriki (Huakui), the strawberry-candy Gesha blend, and the raisin-honey Costa Rica Mozart all flourish in a V60.

For a medium-dark pour-over, the PWN Indonesia Golden Mandheling (18 screen and up, G1 grade, triple hand-sorted) delivers herbal and dark chocolate depth with low acidity, and Brazil Fazenda Rainha Yellow Bourbon gives balanced nuts and caramel sweetness with a smooth, non-astringent body. And for the classic all-rounder, FrontStreet's Jamaica Blue Mountain No.1 balances acidity, sweetness, bitterness, and aroma with cream, caramel, chocolate, nut, and honey notes — the specialty coffee that almost everyone loves.