Finca Alaska 100% Bourbon

Alaska 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 enforces strict quality controls, beginning with de-pulping within few hours after harvesting. The wet parchment is then dropped into tanks where it remains for 10 to 12 hours until it reaches the adequate point of fermentation. The coffee is washed with clean fresh water to remove the mucilage and is then dried in the sun on cement patios for 10 to 12 days until it reaches 12% humidity.

Alaska employs 4 permanent workers and provides work for a further 30 people during harvest time. Ernesto pays his workers a substantially higher wage than the local average. He says that as a result his team of workers is more motivated and committed, which is in turn reflected in continuing improvements in the quality of Alaska’s coffee.

Cupping Date: 

5 August 2010

Clean Cup: 

Clear

Sweetness: 

Ripe

Acidity: 

Grape/Tartaric

Flavour: 

Cherry

Finish: 

Sweet, Medium Length

Balance: 

Acidity/Body, Sound Structure, Harmonious

Overall: 

Finca Alaska has a marked sweetness and vibrant grape acidity, notes of cassis and black cherry and a complex aftertaste