The Blending Room's El Salvador Las Delicias comes from the small Central American country, El Salvador. The Pacific Ocean that borders it to the west and it's good, year round weather and superb soil types makes this El Salvador coffee an excellent one!
The country has had many problems in its recent history. In the 1980s it was ravaged by civil war and then in the 1990s hit by hurricanes and earthquakes. The social and environmental disruption gave El Salvador a reputation for producing low-grade, low-quality coffees. However, recently there has been the realisation that using everything that El Salvador has to offer in regards to climate, soil and it's classic Bourbon coffee plants, there is no reason why El Salvador coffees shouldn't be as good as it's neighbouring country, Guatemala. Fortunately, this is now the case. El Salvador Coffee is now grown in small co-operatives that take time, care and attention to growing their coffee and hence produces some superb examples of Bourbon coffee beans. Our El Salvador Las Delicias is a perfect example.
This Las Delicias coffee is Rainforest Alliance certified, an international conservation organisation that seeks to promote sustainable agriculture. The Rainforest Alliance also importantly encourages farmers to grow high quality coffee beans in harmony with wildlife whilst ensuring workers are treated and paid fairly.
The Las Delicias RFA Certified beans are cultivated near to lake Cuatepeque and grown by a co-operative, from 100% Arabica Bourbon coffee beans.
El Salvador Las Delicias is a medium roasted coffee with soft floral notes, raisins and dried plum flavours. A coffee that can be drunk at any time of the day.
El Salvador is one of the smallest countries in Central America but is probably the most densely populated with roughly 10% of its population being involved in the coffee industry. During the first part of the twentieth century, coffee was El Salvador's largest export, but over recent years, this has begun to decline without about 15% of the country's exported goods belonging to coffee beans. The best of the exported coffee can be seen on the world markets between January and March as strictly high grown coffee.
El Salvador has been plagued over time by vast amounts of warfare, more recently back in the 1980's, which drastically unbalanced the local economy and coffee production. The eastern parts of the country were worst affected, with total coffee bag output reducing from 3.5 million per annum to 2.5 million. This has also been coupled with a crisis in coffee prices back in the 1990's that severley effected the local population. Many thousands of coffee workers lost their jobs as the falling prices meant that the once strong workforce could not be maintained. Fortunately, the quality of the coffee produced by this region of the world has meant that these bad times have since past and a resurgence in desirability has meant that the economy has bounced back.
El Salvador coffee is typical of Central American coffee, whereby it possesses a light body, is fragrantly aromatic and has a clean, light acidity. These characteristics can be found amongst all of the El Salvador coffee, but is particularly prominent in the strictly high grown varietals. A more unique varietal found in El Salvador is the Pacamara bean. This is a cross breed between the Pacas and Maragogype plant and can be found along the western highland districts. Pacamara gives an exceptionally fine cup of coffee, which is full bodied but not too heavy and fragrant. The El Salvador Las Delicias coffee that we stock, comes from the Las Delicias estate where special attention is being paid to the superb quality coffees that are being grown there along with the Santa Barbara estate.
Country/Region:
El Salvador
Roast/Strength:
Medium
Body/Flavour:
Full body, floral notes, raisins and dried plum
Best Brewing Method:
Espresso, Cafetiere
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