El Salvador Honey Process Castillo

This honey process lot is from Finca Miravalles, where we chose to source the majority of our El Salvador coffees this past harvest. Honey processing starts off the same as wet processing, in that the outer cherry is removed using a depulping machine. Here's where things differ. Instead of fermenting the coffee to remove the sticky fruit mucilage from the green seed ("bean"), the coffees is dried with that fruit still intact. Honey processing was popularized at micro mills in Costa Rica, but has become a popular choice in many other parts of the world. It tends to lead to big body, and sometimes imparts fruit flavors in the cup. This lot isn't so much fruity, but definitely a creamy-bodied coffee that is going to work wonders in the medium-to-dark roast range for brewing, and also as espresso. Finca Miravalles is owned by the Duarte family, and is located in Apaneca, Ahuachapan, not too far from the Santa Ana volcano. You can see the nearby town of Atiquizaya from the farm slopes. Miravalles is about 1500 meters above sea level, and the farm is a patchwork of cultivar separations. This lot is Castillo, a variety developed in Colombia by crossing Caturra and Catimor to be high yield and have some disease resistance. Check out our video tour of Finca Miravalles.