1/2 lb. El Salvador - Finca Alaska

Cupping Review:

This Finca Alaska has a marked sweetness and vibrant grape acidity, notes of black cherry and a complex aftertaste that lingers as a wonderful reminder. 

This coffee cupped so fantastically - I bought up the remaining 400 pounds available in the US.

The Farm & Coffee:

 

The Finca Alaska farm is located an hour’s drive from the city of Santa Ana on the northwest slopes of the Santa Ana volcano, one of El Salvador’s prime coffee growing areas.

Owner, Ernesto Menéndez, is a 4th generation coffee grower and took over the running of the farm at just 18 years of age. Ernesto is also a highly skilled cupper and has 8 years in coffee quality control. In 2008, he qualified as a Star Cupper and earned his Q grader certification from the SCAA and CQI that same year. He is also a national judge for Cup of Excellence.

Ernesto has always strived to maintain a happy balance between areas planted out with coffee and the surrounding environment. The coffee is shade grown under a canopy of pepeto peludo, gravileo, cypress and copalchi trees which offers protection from the sun and also provides a heavy leaf fall to provide nutrients for the coffee plants. The red and orange Bourbon varietals help to produce an extremely fine and distinctive coffee, enhancing the brightness of the acidity and delivering a huge range of flavour and fragrance characteristics. There is also a small experimental plot of Pacamara varietal.
The farm is home to a variety of native animal species including armadillos, torogoz, agouti, snakes, squirrels, orioles, deer, hawks and rabbits.
Alaska’s coffee is harvested with extreme care, under Ernesto’s continual supervision. Only perfectly ripe cherries are used and post-harvest cherry selection is always done at the farm to eliminate any remaining immature bean or dry pods.
The coffee is then processed at San Carlos farm, which Ernesto inherited in 1995 on the death of his father, Carlos Menéndez. 

Ernesto has always strived to maintain a happy balance between areas planted out with coffee and the surrounding environment. The coffee is shade grown under a canopy of pepeto peludo, gravileo, cypress and copalchi trees which offers protection from the sun and also provides a heavy leaf fall to provide nutrients for the coffee plants.

The red and orange Bourbon varietals help to produce an extremely fine and distinctive coffee, enhancing the brightness of the acidity and delivering a huge range of flavour and fragrance characteristics. There is also a small experimental plot of Pacamara varietal.


The farm is home to a variety of native animal species including armadillos, torogoz, agouti, snakes, squirrels, orioles, deer, hawks and rabbits.

Alaska’s coffee is harvested with extreme care, under Ernesto’s continual supervision. Only perfectly ripe cherries are used and post-harvest cherry selection is always done at the farm to eliminate any remaining immature bean or dry pods.

El Salvador - Finca Alsaka
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  • Item #: JJ2011-09
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Qty*
Price $8.00