Oh Fernando! Specialty Coffee

English Lakes Hotels has struck up a new partnership with a coffee producer in El Salvador to provide our venues with their own unique roasted blend.

The hotel group is working with the Finca Las Mercedes farm, which is located on the slopes of the San Salvador Volcano, to produce its own artisan coffee – both for our guests staying at our venues and for customers to purchase and enjoy at home.

A team from English Lakes Hotels embarked on a fact-finding visit to El Salvador to sample and test the Finca Las Mercedes coffee and meet the Aguilar family which has run the plantation for six generations.

They visited the coffee plantation and the neighbouring Los Ausoles mill, where the 'fruit' is taken and prepared via ecological friendly processes into raw, export-ready green coffee beans.

The Aguilar family’s coffee plantation extends to around 160 hectares, located on the shade-rich land of the north eastern slopes of the volcano. The altitude of 1,700 metres at the top of the farm adds to its appeal as an exceptional coffee growing environment.

The family business is committed to its own meticulous practices in artisan coffee production. Their ‘honey method’ is a holistic, end-to-end process from harvest through to dry mill delivery.

The coffee plant species chosen by the hotel group is Arabica, with the beans providing an excellent flavour profile. Prior to harvesting, the coffee cherries are subject to Brix measurement readings which calculate their readiness. The family waits until the readings are between 24 and 28 which indicates a premium crop with richer flavour.

The deep red-purple coffee cherries are then de-pulped, with great care taken to leave some of the sticky mucilage on the coffee beans during the drying process so that they provide a sweeter, heavier body. The beans then go through the ‘Sol-Sambra’, sun and shade drying process on raised beds for just over three weeks

English Lakes Hotels’ coffee production project has been brokered with the support of Liverpool import and logistics experts Covoya Specialty Coffee and Leeds based roasting experts CLO Coffee.

El Salvador has a strong reputation for a single source coffee bean which does not need to be blended. Coffee was first introduced to the country from the Caribbean in the mid eighteenth century and was first exported in 1856.