Producer: Lucia Ortiz
Farm: Finca Las Mercedes
Region: Usulután Department
Altitude: 1,194-1,600 masl | 4,900-5,250 feet
Varietal: Bourbon
Process: Honey
Roast: Light
Notes: Butterscotch, Raisin, Semi-Sweet Chocolate

The honey process is common in Central America, emphasizing rich fruit notes and rounding out acidity while contributing a creamy mouthfeel to the cup.

At Las Mercedes, Bourbon cherries from the El Pepinal lot are screened for quality and only selected when they have achieved peak ripeness. After sorting, the cherries are sent immediately to the on-site wet mill. The cherries are washed in ceramic tile channels and sent into the pulper where the skin is removed, leaving the sticky, honey-like mucilage exposed.

The coffee is then laid out on clay tile patios to dry for a day or two and carefully turned with rakes to allow the mucilage to ferment evenly. After fermentation the parchment coffee is sent through washing channels to remove the remaining mucilage, then spread back out on the tile patio to dry for 7-10 days.

We have been proud to partner with Finca Las Mercedes since 2006, when Lucia's El Pepinal lot took first place in El Salvador Cup of Excellence. The farm has thrived under the leadership of Lucia Ortiz, whose family has owned the farm for five generations.