El Salvador Finca El Manzano La Cumbre

Producer Emilio López Díaz
Farm El Manzano
Farm Section La Cumbre
Municipality Chalchuapa
Department Santa Ana
Region Apaneca Ilamatepec

Sun Exposure Mixed, Northeast Facing
Farm Size 28ha
Altitude 1600 masl
Latitude 13.904929
Longitude -89.667524

Variety SL34
Process Honey
Fermentation 24hr Dry
Drying 15-20 Days on Raised Beds

Flavor Dried Fruit, Red Berry, Orange, Floral
Descriptors Silky, Sweet and Vibrant

Certifications Rainforest Alliance in progress

About this coffee Over the past three years we’ve had a number of coffees from La Cumbre, the highest section of Finca El Manzano, and they’re always a standout. Always showcasing brightness and high quality sweetness and acidity. Previously we’ve had Emilio’s SL34 as a natural, and this year as a Honey processed lot – one that the Odyssey team are incredibly proud of.

Emilio planted SL34 after the leaf rust endemic in 2014 in Central America, one that hit El Salvador, and El Manzano particularly bad. El Salvador’s coffee production dropped by 70% and entirely wiped out parts of Emilio’s farm. While much of the country went on to replant more resistant varieties, Emilio gambled on replanting traditional varieties as well as a small number of Geisha trees followed by SL34 and other Ethiopian landrace varieties. A gamble that paid off as he went on to produce two Cup of Excellence winning lots that placed both 1st and 2nd in 2018, and the farm continues to produce some of El Salvador’s most brilliantly clean coffees.

After picking, the coffee cherries are taken to Beneficio El Manzano at the base of the farms and are run through a mechanical syphon to rinse, clean, and remove floaters and foreign materials. The coffee cherries were then partially pulped, removing the skin and a small amount of the mucilage, before moving to drying beds to start fermentation and drying.

The honey process resides somewhere between the washed and dry (natural) processing methods and results in both high flavor transparency and acidity, along with lovely ripe fruit flavors. Exactly what we get here in this coffee; ripe white and yellow stone fruit, florals, and a crisp, bright acidity.

Odyssey Coffees are a producer up, vertically integrated company co founded by Emilio Lopez Diaz and Jose Roberto Santamaria. The Green Cost goes entirely to them and is inclusive of everything between harvest to import.