El Salvador
Santa Rita

Washed process Pacas, Bourbon

Flavour: honeydew melon, finger lime, peach

Body: Acidity:

During El Salvador’s civil war and in the land redistributions that followed, many families either abandoned or were forced to leave their farms, and this was the case for Mauricio’s mother Carmen Elena.

While the history of coffee at Finca Santa Rita dates back to the 1940s, it was after the this upheaval in 1990 that Carmen Elena bought Santa Rita, bringing coffee farming back into the family.

The farm has 45 hectares of coffee along with 25 hectares of cypress forests, high in the Ilamatepeque mountain range. Santa Rita is buffeted by very strong winds, so they grow a protective buffer of Ingas trees, which are carefully pruned every year to offer shelter to the more fragile coffee crop.

Mauricio has also introduced the Pacas varietal to the farm, as it is a smaller and more wind-resistant tree, while still offering the good cup characteristics of its parent bourbon, (which you can read about at World Coffee Research).

The coffee competition Cup of Excellence (COE) started in El Salvador in 2003, recognising the best crops grown in the country that year.

On average, Mauricio maintains approximately less than 3,000 coffee trees per hectare at Santa Rita, with good spacing between rows. Giving the plants this generous space means they don’t have to compete for scarce resources and that the mountain air can still circulate between the plants – both important details as both the Bourbon and Pacas varietals are susceptible to leaf rust and other diseases, unlike the Pacamara varietal which was bred to better withstand disease.

All the coffee from Santa Rita (and Mauricio’s other farms) is processed at his nearby Cafescal Mill. The small beneficio is carefully run and produces coffees using not only washed process (such as the one you’re brewing in this delivery) but also other types of processing.

During the harvest, Santa Rita’s cherries are delivered to the mill to be pulped the same day. After fermentation and washing, the coffee is spread out on clay patios to be sun dried, and is moved every half-hour – up to sixteen times a day. This continues until the coffee is ready for storage and transport.

Learn everything about this coffee:

Ethical, traceable sourcing

This page has all the sourcing information (variety, process, region, story, importer, and more) that our importers share with us, and give us permission to use.

The transparency helps us talk confidently about the quality and background of our product, and it helps you know exactly what you’re buying.

Learn more:
Coffee page transparency legend
Our coffee philosophy
Our business approach

Fresh harvest coffee

We only source and roast coffee from each country’s latest harvest season (so the green coffee is never older than 1 year from the time of picking, processing and packing). This ensures the sensory qualities are always at their peak and unaffected by excessive ageing.

Roasted for espresso and filter (best enjoyed black)

Roast style: omni. Omni roasts are designed to brew and taste great both as espresso and filter. Our omni single origins generally sit on Agtron values in the ~70-60 value range. So, technically, they are somewhere in the lighter side of the medium spectrum.

Designed for espresso and filter brewing. Best enjoyed black.

Learn more:
Our Loring Kestrel S35 roaster
Our roasting style and approach

Best brewed within days 15-49 post-roast

The ‘fresh is best’ saying doesn’t apply to coffee (contrary to popular belief). Waiting before opening and brewing your bag of whole coffee beans helps develop peak flavour and acidity.

But heads up: if you buy pre-ground coffee, brew it as soon as possible.

Learn more:
Our recommended brewing window

Try our custom brewing recipes

Our recipes and ratios are tailored to our coffee sourcing and roasting styles, bringing the best flavour and feel out of each coffee.

For pour over, immersion, and other filter brewing styles, check our brew guides.
For our espresso single origins, we recommend a coffee:yield ratio of 1:3:

Dose: 20g ground coffee
Yield: 60g espresso
Total brew time: ~24-28 seconds

This is just a starting point! We encourage you to experiment, taste, and adjust to find the recipe that you enjoy the most.

Learn more:
Our espresso brew guide (single origin)
Brewing ratio calculator

Packaging and sustainability

Bags: ABA-certified home compostable (AS 5810-2010)
Labels: recyclable
Valves (only on +250g bags): general waste
Box and tape (online orders): recyclable

Learn more:
Our packaging

Producer: Mauricio Escalon
Country: El Salvador
Region: Juayua, Sonsonate
Altitude: 1500 - 1700m above sea level
Varieties: Pacas, Bourbon
Process: washed
Harvested: January 2017
Importer: Caravela
Body: Medium
Acidity: Soft
Tasting notes: Honeydew melon, finger lime, peach
Roast style: Omni (filter + espresso)

Varieties

Bourbon variety

A natural mutation of the Typica varietal, Bourbon is named after Reunion Island (then known as Il Bourbon) where the French cultivated the Typica plants which naturally mutated.

Pacas variety

A natural mutation of the Bourbon variety

The location

Coffee from El Salvador

El Salvador, the smallest country in Central America, is colloquially referred to as the ‘Land of Volcanoes’. Renowned for producing exceptional coffees with great clarity and sweetness. The coffee industry first took off after their primary crop, indigo, declined with the invention of chemical dyes in the 19th Century.

The Apaneca-Ilamatepec region of El Salvador

The largest producing region of El Salvador and likely the area where coffee was first cultivated in the country

Farm processes

Washed process

Machines are used to remove the flesh from the coffee cherry before being fermented in water, washed again, and finally sun dried. This process tends to result in more distinct, cleaner flavours.