El Salvador Finca El Borbollón Red Bourbon - 500g

This El Borbollón has a crisp acidity with a big mouthfeel and a deep rich cup. There is milk chocolate notes with a slight stone fruit vibe, which holds beautifully. Very classy cup of coffee & versatile. As an espresso in milk it is complex but not overwhelming, with a very caramel smooth character shining through.

The Alvarez family has been growing coffee in El Salvador for over 100 years and across four generations. Their award-winning farms are located on the lush green hills of Santa Ana, in the west of the country, whose rich volcanic soils and mild climate provide ideal conditions for growing coffee. There are a number of farms under which together make up El Borbollón - La Reforma, Santa Maria, El Cerro, Las Lomas, El Angel, San Juan & Santa Theresa. The coffee is hand-picked and collected in traditional hand woven baskets from December until March by pickers who have been specially trained to select only the best and fully-mature coffee cherries.

The Alvarez Diaz brothers are the fourth generation to farm coffee in this exceptional region. Following in their father’s footsteps, both farms to this day are planted solely with red bourbon variety coffee trees, demonstrating the family’s commitment to quality even in the face of El Salvador’s recent struggles with coffee leaf rust, to which Bourbon trees are particularly susceptible.

The trees are cultivated under native shade, which improves and conserves the soil and provides habitation for birds, and are managed according to a stringent pruning schedule that maintains the health of the trees and improves their resistance to diseases and insect damage. The excellent growing conditions and the commitment to sustainable growing practices have helped the family to harvest some of the best coffee from this elite region of El Salvador, which is then processed at the family’s state-of-the-art El Borbollon mill in Santa Ana.

El Borbollon mill is managed by Eduardo Alvarez, whose father (also Eduardo) bequeathed to him a passion for growing coffee and inspired him to always strive for the highest quality. Under Eduardo’s direction, the mill has increasingly accessed speciality markets and has provided key technical assistance and guidance to the farms with which they work. In fact, Eduardo’s hard work and advocacy has enabled many of these farms to place in Cup of Excellence competitions. Of the 15 high altitude farms with which El Borbollon works, 10 have won places in Cup of Excellence competitions. 4 of these, including La Reforma, have won the COE Presidential Award for achieving scores in excess of 90 points.  

Price shown per 500g