El Salvador Los Nogales Project El Roble HSF Red Honey

Los Nogales is a very special farm for JASAL as it was the first farm that the Salaverria family bought and it is where Jose Antonio Salaverria grew up. He grew up surrounded by the fruits of Los Nogales and we thought it was the perfect place to launch our project where you chose the plot of land, the process & the variety. This project has evolved over the years with the occasional lot (such as this) becoming available and is a great in route to being included in future offerings.

JASAL are a family business of over 100 years, with farms amongst the Apaneca Ilamatepec mountain range, part of the Cordelliera de Apeneca. This volcanic range runs through the Ahuachapán, Santa Ana, and Sonsonate departments in the west of El Salvador, and is where many of the Cup of Excellence producing farms in the country are located. Los Nogales is 30 hectares, exclusively supplied to us, and grows Bourbon, Sarchimor, Hybrido de San Francisco (HSF), Caturra, Red Catuai and Yellow Catuai across three plots; El Capulin, El Roble and Miramar at the top of the farm at just over 1500+ masl.

Cherry is processed at their centralised processing mill, Beneficio Los Cruces. An old building over 100 years old and described as an ‘antique house’ forms the central part of the mill, with researchers claiming Che Guevara hid there on his journey through Latin America. However, equipment is not that old and has since been renovated and kept up to date with the ability to process washed, semi washed, honey and natural coffees across patios, raised beds and mechanical driers. Having a centralised mill means focussed staff can pay attention to quality on the farms as well as cherry coming in, process consistency and final cup profile.

The HSF varietal is a naturally occurring hybrid between Bourbon and Pacas that was first discovered on the Salaverria’s own San Francisco plot and now carries that reminder as part of it’s name.

Cherries are picked and brought immediately to the depulper for removal of around 20% of the mucilage. Cherrys are then bagged in jute for transporting to preserve any mucilage loss and placed in thin layers on a raised bed where the cherries are consistently turned to achieve an even drying. This normally takes around 15 days depending on the weather, compared to 20-25 days drying for the natural processed coffees on patios.