Introduction to El Salvador Santa Elena Estate - El Salvador Coffee Overview

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El Salvador's Finest: Santa Elena Estate

Among the various producing countries in Central America, El Salvador is arguably the smallest country in terms of land area. Although its production volume is much smaller compared to other countries, the Pacific sea breeze and volcanic ring provide Salvadoran coffee farmers with unique cultivation advantages and diverse flavor expressions. Currently, the Pacamara variety, which frequently wins in various cupping competitions, was born in El Salvador.

Among the various regions in El Salvador, the area with soil quality and altitude advantages is the Santa Ana Volcano, located west of the capital with an elevation of 2,381 meters. The still-active Santa Ana Volcano erupted in 2005. Although it caused significant economic losses and some casualties for local coffee farmers that year, the subsequent organic volcanic ash provided extremely rich nutrient sources to the local soil. Until now, Santa Ana is still recognized as one of El Salvador's best producing regions.

Within the Santa Ana region, Santa Elena Estate is one of the few estates at the highest elevation. The estate is currently managed by Mr. Fernando Lima, now in its third generation of ownership. Mr. Fernando has over 30 years of coffee cultivation experience, starting from a young age. The estate primarily grows Bourbon and Pacamara varieties. Mr. Fernando adheres to the principle of maintaining environmental diversity in his cultivation philosophy. Upon entering the estate, one can immediately feel the difference from other Salvadoran estates. The estate maintains a very pristine, native forest environment, while Mr. Fernando has also preserved a high proportion of old Bourbon coffee trees, some over 15 years old. For the estate owner, these coffee trees represent painstaking efforts and achievements, and he does not cut them down due to their age and lower yield. Instead, these old Bourbon trees, despite producing less, can provide better cupping flavors.

Innovative Processing Methods

Traditionally, Salvadoran coffee farmers have not been particularly meticulous in handling coffee fruit drying, and their equipment is relatively simple. However, Mr. Fernando continuously updates many equipment items in the processing plant, making Santa Elena Estate one of the few estates in El Salvador that uses African drying beds for coffee fruit sun-drying. Although using African drying beds often extends the drying time, it can enhance the coffee's cleanliness and sweetness. At the same time, Mr. Fernando established his own washed processing station 15 years ago, allowing the estate owner to control subsequent coffee processing independently. This also enables more detailed experiments with honey-processed batches. At Santa Elena Estate, after harvesting red coffee cherries, Mr. Fernando does not immediately proceed with depulping or sun-drying. Instead, he first places the red cherries in clean water tanks at the processing plant for static soaking to enhance the coffee's sweetness expression before proceeding with subsequent processing.

Award-Winning Excellence

While many excellent washed batch coffees could be found in El Salvador in the past, they often fell slightly short in sweetness and body compared to other countries. Santa Elena Estate is one of the few estates in El Salvador with experience in honey and natural processing. Mr. Fernando's attention to detail in honey and natural processing reaches almost meticulous standards. These efforts have earned Santa Elena Estate seven C.O.E. competition wins since 2003 and two top-ten placements in the Central American competition organized by the Rainforest Alliance.

Santa Elena Estate is located in the Santa Ana Volcano region of western El Salvador. Due to volcanic activity, the estate's soil contains very rich organic matter. The estate's average elevation is approximately 1,850 meters with steep terrain, making it one of the highest-elevation estates in the area. Currently managed by Mr. Don Fernando Lima, Fernando's philosophy is to maintain El Salvador's original traditional cultivation methods. Except for necessary pruning and irrigation, the estate maintains large areas of natural agricultural forest ecology. Over 90% of the estate is planted with Bourbon varieties.

Simultaneously, Fernando also adopts modern agricultural management techniques, dividing the estate into different zones for strict monitoring and recording of soil quality, fertilization, and coffee tree conditions. In addition to excellent cultivation, Santa Elena Estate also has its own coffee washing processing facilities. For farmers with washing stations, besides avoiding price exploitation from outsourcing processing, the greatest advantage is the ability to handle carefully selected harvested red coffee cherries more rigorously. Fernando is extremely meticulous about the washing process, not only regularly recording daily temperature and humidity but also paying close attention to the processing of green coffee beans in fermentation tanks.

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee suggests brewing parameters:

Pour-over: V60 dripper, grind at 3.5 with Fuji R440, water temperature around 90°C

French press: recommended grind setting 4, water temperature 90°C

Siphon: recommended grind setting 4, water temperature 90°C-91°C

AeroPress: recommended grind setting 3.5, water temperature 90°C

Important Notice :

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FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473