El Salvador El Carmen - Anaerobic Natural
El Carmen Estate is located in El Salvador’s Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range, one of Central America’s prime specialty coffee producing areas. The estate has been farmed by the Alfaro family for over a century.
El Carmen lies in the heart of El Salvador’s main ‘protected highway’ of forest, a part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor System that stretches all the way from Mexico down to Panama. In El Salvador, where more than 80% of the country’s coffee is produced under shade, coffee farms such as El Carmen play a vital role as a sanctuary for hundreds of the migratory and native bird species found in this part of the world.
The Estate was founded in the middle of the 19th century when Antonio José Alfaro acquired a plot of land near the village of Ataco – meaning ‘Site of Elevated Springs’ in the indigenous Nahuatl language – where he started to produce coffee. His son, Agustin Alfaro, founder of the Salvadoran National Coffee Company, followed in his father’s footsteps and established El Carmen as one of El Salvador’s leading exporters. His efforts were continued by Antonio Alfaro, head of the third generation of this coffee family and are carried through today by Fernando Alfaro, the fourth generation of his family to farm coffee.
El Salvador El Carmen - Process and Harvest
El Carmen is an extremely well-run specialty Estate and is managed with scrupulous attention to detail, with great emphasis placed on maintaining the identity of each lot from the moment its coffee cherries are harvested until the point when the green beans are ready for export. The estate’s coffee is produced under approximately 60% shade cover, which is required for the coffee to ripen evenly. Prior to the rainy season, shade trees are then pruned to about 40% shade to allow the access of light necessary for new foliage growth.
This lot is comprised of Elite Bourbon (Bourbon Mejorado), a new locally developed varietal. They are tall trees, producing excellent-quality beans. El Carmen has 10 hectares of Elite Bourbon, completely separated from the other varietals on the farm.
During the harvest, the cherries are hand-picked only when perfectly ripe and delivered to the mill located at the farm. The cherries are sorted for quality, then placed into containers with water and a cocktail of mountain microorganisms, fungus, and bacteria to ferment for 192 hours sealed. This slows down the fermentation process and prevents any growth of mould. Afterwards, the cherries are evenly dispersed on raised beds to dry in the open sun for 25 – 30 days, with constant raking to prevent any mould development. Once drying is complete, the coffee is hulled and prepared for export.
Chipp Coffee Co - Roastery Update
You may have noticed that we look a bit different these days. No it's not a new haircut or new glasses; WE HAVE A NEW WEBSITE! YES I KNOW YOU'RE ALREADY HERE! GO CLICK ALL THE BUTTONS AND LOOK AT OUR DUMB FACES! We've been working on it for what feels like a lifetime and we're so happy we can finally unveil our brand new fancy look. We hope you like it!
With our new fancy store we've released a brand new fancy limited edition coffee from one of our favourite producers on the planet! This is a super special Geisha from one of the G.O.A.T's Gerardo Peñalva in Honduras. You may recognise the name from our incredible Fincas Las Flores back in 2024 and he's back again with a showstopper. I don't want to ruin it for you but it's available now in 200g boxes and there's only 150. Once it's gone it will not be coming back so get it while before it sells out (or we drink it all ourselves).
What We're Listening To
This month we've had the latest instalment from Doechii - Alligator Bites Never Heal. Doechii has been making waves over the last 12 months with the release of her latest album that perfectly combines elements of funk and soul with gritty rap to create an awesome blend of groove and melody that keeps you coming back for another listen. There's always something new you didn't notice on the previous listen and it's been keeping us entertained for a good few weeks now. We personally recommend checking out NISSAN ALTIMA or DENIAL IS A RIVER if you want to get the blood pumping and your butt grooving.
