Near Santiago de Maria in southeastern El Salvador, high in the mountains of Cerro El Tigre, lies the Las Mercedes family of farms. Finca Las Mercedes has been passed down through five generations of the Ortiz family. Through their 125-year history, they have obtained a reputation as one of the elite coffee producers in El Salvador.
In 2006 Finca Las Mercedes won First Place in the El Salvador Cup of Excellence. Lucia Ortiz, who manages marketing and relationships for the farm, placed a call to Jeff Taylor, owner of PT’s Coffee Roasting Co. and Bird Rock Coffee Roasters, and they began a partnership that has lasted since that initial call in 2006. Each year we are excited to explore the diversity of varieties, processing, and innovations from Lucia and her team.
At Las Mercedes, Bourbon cherries from the El Pepinal lot are screened for quality and only selected when they have achieved peak ripeness. After sorting, the cherries are sent immediately to the on-site wet mill. The cherries are washed in ceramic tile channels and sent into the pulper where the skin is removed, leaving the sticky, honey-like mucilage exposed.
The coffee is then laid out on clay tile patios to dry for a day or two and carefully turned with rakes to allow the mucilage to dry on the parchment. Afterward, the parchment is moved to raised beds to dry slowly over the course of 21 days until reaching a moisture content of 11%.
