El Salvador San Antonio

From importer:

Johny Lemus owns a 3-manzana farm called San Antonio, where he grows Pacas variety in fertile black soil. (He also grows a bit of Gesha and is working to improve the quality of those cups.) He processes his coffee both as Naturals and as Washed.

Chalatenango, the "valley of water and sand", is El Salvador's coolest and northern-most region. Historically, the country's top coffees have come from western El Salvador. In 2007, though, a Chalatenango pacamara won the Cup of Excellence bringing the region and variety center stage. We purchased that winning coffee, and promptly went to Chalatenango to cup coffees from more producers. Since that time, we've placed a green buyer associate in the region to expand relationships and provide support. From year to year, we've become used to cupping microlots of pacamara, pacas, SL-28, and Gesha, all grown by small producers who apply rigorous harvest and a range of processing techniques. Chalatenango is both special to us, and important to specialty coffee as a whole.