El Salvador: Finca Argentina, SL28, Washed

El Salvador: Finca Argentina, SL28, Washed

Beginning with a sweet and sticky hit of lime marmalade, the cup gains a more complex sweetness as it cools, shifting into milk chocolate, with a little shoulder of walnut.

Roland last visited El Salvador in February as the harvest at Finca Argentina was just coming to an end. The farm is at a lower altitude than other producers we work with in El Salvador, so that shifts the harvest a little earlier than San Jose or Nejapa, for example. He travelled with Mauricio to visit the Los Ausoles mill to cup the various seasonal coffee lots available this year. We bought both the Natural and the Washed SL28 lots on offer, and it is the Washed SL28 that we have for you here.

On The Farm

Near the town of Turin, in the Ahuachapán department of El Salvador, you’ll find Finca Argentina. It’s located within the Cordillera de Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range, surrounded by natural hot springs at an altitude of 1,300 metres above sea level. The farm’s 35 hectares are separated into 7 distinct areas, or "tablons". Each of these individual plots has its own character, shaped by the landscape and the small peculiarities of microclimate that come with changes in altitude, aspect, soil, and even local volcanic activity.

Over time, the team at Finca Argentina have put a lot of effort into exploring different varietals, discovering what grows best on each of the farm’s 7 tablons. The Guachipelin tablon spans 6 hectares and was replanted in 2016 with H1 (Centroamericano), Yellow Bourbon, Icatu, and a small amount of SL28.

The Martinez Family

The farm was first acquired by the Martinez family in 1967. Dr Luis Guillermo Martinez bought the estate, and it quickly became his favourite and produced well. By the time his son, Mauricio, inherited it in 2008, cherry yields had dropped significantly and he was unsure how best to proceed with his newly owned farm. It was here that his son, and our now good friend, Alejandro, stepped in.

He had just relocated back to El Salvador after working as a city banker in New York and decided to lend a hand to his father’s business interests while looking for work. Ale’s interest was piqued when he saw that the farm had been classified for a Q auction in 2005, showing it had the potential for great coffee. He and his cousin, based in London, set about sending green coffee samples to roasters wherever they could, seeking a specialty buyer. One of those samples landed with us in 2008, and we’ve been buying ever since.

Mauricio and Alejandro both now live in Canada, but Mauricio still owns and oversees the farm remotely. He relies on his farm manager and the on-site team to handle day-to-day operations and keep him up to date, while visiting El Salvador regularly to check in. The Martinez family employ 50 people during harvest and 30 throughout the rest of the year. Mauricio's daughter Beatrix, who hadn't previously been involved in coffee, is also now helping with the family business.

Processing of the coffee is carried out at the Los Ausoles dry mill, a cooperative facility in Ahuachapán. They have a very good relationship with Mauricio and have shown great consistency and reliability for us as buyers.

Highly Skilled Workers

Throughout the growing season at Finca Argentina, individual workers are given a lot of responsibility over pruning and managing trees. On many farms, pruning would be quite regimented, for example every other tree receiving a skeleton prune in a particular section. At Finca Argentina, these decisions are left much more to the knowledge of the staff, who decide on a plant-by-plant basis what kind of pruning is needed as they work through an area.

It is easy to ruin coffee production if the wrong pruning choices are made, so this demonstrates a great deal of trust and is only possible because the farm retains and develops workers’ skills over the long term.

El Salvador has been hit hard by the wider labour shortage affecting other Central Americ

Produced by the Martinez family in the Ahuachapán region of El Salvador, this Finca Argentina lot showcases the distinct profile of the SL28 varietal. While this cultivar is historically associated with Kenyan production, its cultivation in El Salvador offers a unique perspective on how terroir influences varietal expression. The coffee undergoes a washed process, a method typically employed to highlight the inherent clarity and acidity of the bean.

Roasted by Ozone Coffee, the cup presents a balanced profile featuring notes of lime marmalade, milk chocolate, and walnut. When evaluating these characteristics, one might refer to the flavor wheel to better categorize the interplay between the bright citrus acidity and the deeper, nutty sweetness. By utilizing traditional washing techniques, the producers have maintained a clean cup profile that allows the specific nuances of the SL28 plant to remain at the forefront of the sensory experience.