Finca Siberia

Finca Siberia has been farmed since 1870, when Fabio Morán and Etifanio Silva decided to settle on this hostile territory, sowing coffee trees on one of the highest cultivable areas of the Apaneca-Ilamatepec Mountain Range. They named their 28 hectares of land ‘Siberia’, inspired by its unpredictable weather conditions and remote location. Just over a century later the farm’s current owners, Rafael Silva and his wife Carmen, inherited the property.

Siberia lies at around 1450m, where its 28 hectares of coffee trees are sheltered from the sun and strong winds by numerous native trees. It is planted out with a mix of bourbon (75%) and pacamara varietal trees. This lot is produced from the latter varietal, a hybrid of Pacas (Bourbon mutation) and Maragogype (Typica mutation), which was developed in the 1950s in El Salvador. Like the Maragogype, this varietal produces a very large bean and benefits from being planted at high altitude.

Siberia has been placed in the Cup of Excellence competition several times - taking 6th place in 2004, 23rd place in 2007 and 27th place in 2008.

The Silvas are committed to protecting their local environment and have accumulated a vast collection of earthworms, which they use to produce completely organic fertilizer from the leftover coffee pulp. Their coffee is hand picked, sun-dried and hand selected to guarantee quality, a process which provides work for some 24 local families.

The farm is part of the Mesoamerican Biological Corridor System that stretches all the way from Mexico down to Panama. When this network of ‘protected highways’ enters El Salvador, it passes through the shade grown coffee regions, which act as a ‘substitute forest’. For this reason, coffee farms in this area play a vital role as a sanctuary for most of the 520 migratory and native bird species found in this part of the world.