Day 1 El Salvador 2014, Buenos Dias amigos, What a perfect day to start the trip. Being picked up by our good friend Gilberto Barriona he took us to his farm Los Pirineos. Using his 4WD Navara as a rally car Gilberto definitely wastes no time on the road. Imagine drinking 5 long blacks and a glass of cascara-youre heart will be racing as fast as this guy drives and after one encounter with local police, we were across to his beautiful farm in West El Salvador. Los Pirineos is all about experimenting, not just in the processing and pruning, but also with developing the best varietals for their region. Their nursery was full of healthy looking Orange Pacamara and Geisha trees as well as seedlings of an intriguing varietal weve never heard of before, pointed bourbon. Every year we come across more and more new varietals and Gilberto really took us on an adventure to his more established nursery with over 50 different varietals from around the world. Most of these weve never heard of before. This is part of one of their huge experiments to see what trees are working best on his farm. One of which an extremely temperamental tree which produces coffee naturally free of caffeine. The most unique varietal we saw however was Coyana (see pic below). Each cherry sprouts its own flower. None of us had ever seen this before, nor have any idea how it will cup. All of these trees will be in production and ready to cup next harvest. Next was onto his mill. Gus got goosebumps as he finally saw coffee being processed in real life. And what a perfect mill to pop his cherry (or should we say de-pulp??). The cleanest mill and washing station you will ever see, these guys are seriously meticulous and only use fresh rain-water for processing. There is nothing better then getting to see this happen first hand, with the farmer standing next to you sharing his techniques. We loved Gilbertos bourbon elite from last year and today they did an experimental honey process lot for us to try (will feature as a single later in the year). On their drying beds were many different nano-lots of the same coffee with different drying, soaking and fermenting techniques. We also got to see his newest african beds which are built under shade to extend drying times. Here we saw some yellow pacamara (we will be cupping a different lot of this varietal tomorrow) and some natural bourbon elite which has been drying now for 60 days. What better way to end the days adventure then dinner. We had the priveldge of eating with Gilberto, our dear friend Mauricio (farmer who brought us some of our best coffees for last year; villa galicia, finca himalaya, supersonic and tablon el copo) as well as Alejandro (World Barista Champ 2011), William Hernandez (current 3rd place world barista champ) and their coach and owner of Santa Petrona farm Frederico. You will struggle to find a group of more knowledgable yet so humble guys. Being the company of 3 such talented producers was such an exciting experience and is the reason why we are sitting in the hotel room at 1.30 in the morning to excited to sleep. Good night for the moment (if we ever calm down), Sasa and Gus
Posted on: Sat, 22 Feb 2014 07:35:07 +0000
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