El Salvador Himalaya Mambo No. 5 - Natural

86pts: Tasting notes of raspberry, cherry, marmalade, chocolate, sweet, round, balanced 

 

Producer: Mauricio Salaverría
Varietal: Cuzcatleco
Process: Natural
Altitude: 1,500 m

Located on soft, volcanic clay within the Apaneca Mountains of El Salvador, Finca Himalaya cultivates much of their coffee under shade grown conditions. Mauricio and his team use cypress and pine trees to provide a habitat for bees, rabbits, butterflies and a wide variety of birdlife. They use African drying beds, partly shaded from the wind, to slowly dry the coffee and ensure an even and controlled drying process. Coffee has been grown on the farm since 1875, and it has a reputation within El Salvador for being the first ‘specialty coffee farm’ in the country. As if that reputation wasn’t enough, Finca Himalaya was also the birthplace of Project Origin’s Supernatural processing, and where we created Supersonic coffee with Mauricio back in 2014. The Supernatural process we do with Mauricio involves cherries being stacked in great thick piles to increase temperature, turned every few hours and cocooned overnight in plastic sheets. After several days, this process reverts towards a more standard practice for natural processing with thinly laid out cherries drying for several days and being turned frequently to promote clarity, before finally heading off to the bodega, or warehouse, to rest and await dry milling. All our experiments came with the help and collaboration of Mauricio, and we now utilise supernatural processing in many countries to enhance and add variety to coffee profiles.