El Salvador: Finca Argentina, Centroamericano H1, Honey

This unctuous coffee delivers rich chocolate ganache, balanced by a hint of crisp red apple, before finishing with lingering caramel on the aftertaste for a luscious dessert in a cup.

Roland last visited El Salvador in February as the harvest at Finca Argentina was just coming to an end. The farm is at a lower altitude than other producers we work with in El Salvador, so that shifts the harvest a little earlier than San Jose or Nejapa, for example. He travelled with Mauricio to visit the Los Ausoles mill to cup the various seasonal coffee lots available this year. We feel that this Honey Process Centroamericano H1 lot is a fantastic example of the varietal and embodies everything we love about great Salvadoran single origin coffee.

On The Farm

Near the town of Turin, in the Ahuachapán department of El Salvador, you’ll find Finca Argentina. It’s located in the Apaneca-Ilamtepec mountain range, surrounded by natural hot springs at an altitude of 1,300 metres above sea level. The farm’s 35 hectares are separated into 7 distinct areas or "tablons". Each of these individual plots has its own character, shaped by the landscape and the small peculiarities of microclimate that come with changes in altitude, aspect, soil, and even local volcanic activity.

Over time, the team at Finca Argentina have put a lot of effort into exploring different varietals, discovering what grows best on each of the farm’s 7 tablons. The Guachipelin tablon spans 6 hectares and was replanted in 2016 with H1 (Centroamericano), Yellow Bourbon, Icatu, and a small amount of SL-28.

The Martinez Family

The farm was first acquired by the Martinez family in 1967. Dr Luis Guillermo Martinez bought the estate, and it quickly became his favourite and produced well. By the time his son, Mauricio, inherited it in 2008, cherry yields had dropped significantly and he was unsure how best to proceed with his newly owned farm. It was here that his son, and our now good friend, Alejandro, stepped in.

He had just relocated back to El Salvador after working as a city banker in New York and decided to lend a hand to his father’s business interests while looking for work. Ale’s interest was piqued when he saw that the farm had been classified for a Q auction in 2005, showing it had the potential for great coffee. He and his cousin, based in London, began sending green coffee samples to roasters wherever they could, seeking a specialty buyer. One of those samples landed with us in 2008, and we’ve been buying ever since.

Mauricio and Alejandro now both live in Canada, but Mauricio still owns and oversees the farm remotely. He relies on his farm manager and the on-site team to handle day-to-day operations and keep him up to date, while visiting El Salvador regularly to check in. The Martinez family employ 50 people during harvest and 30 for the rest of the year. Mauricio's daughter Beatrix, who hadn't previously been involved in coffee, is now also helping with the family business.

Processing of the coffee is carried out at the Los Ausoles dry mill, a cooperative facility in Ahuachapán. They have a very good relationship with Mauricio and have shown great consistency and reliability for us as buyers.

Highly Skilled Workers

Throughout the growing season at Finca Argentina, individual workers are given a lot of responsibility over pruning and managing trees. On many farms, pruning would be quite regimented, for example every other tree receiving a skeleton prune in a particular section. At Finca Argentina, these decisions are left much more to the knowledge and experience of the staff, who decide on a plant-by-plant basis what kind of pruning is needed as they work through an area.

It is easy to ruin coffee production if the wrong pruning choices are made, so this shows a tremendous amount of trust and is only possible because the farm retains and develops workers’ skills over the long term.

El Salvador has been hit hard by the wider labour shortage affecting other Central American countries. Fortunately, Finca Argentina is currently managing well, although they are having to consider new ways to retain sufficient staff during harvest season. The Martinez family employ 50 people during the harvest and 30 throughout the rest of the year. They contribute labour and materials to improve local infrastructure and grow 25kg of corn annually for each worker.

They are also implementing more ecological management practices, including using compost and other organic products to minimise environmental impact and intercropping beans to enrich the soil. Their efforts have improved biodiversity and cup quality, and the future for coffee production at Finca Argentina is looking very bright.

Centroamericano H1

The Centroamericano varietal might not be the best known, but we think it is certainly worth paying attention to. Sometimes misunderstood, Centroamericano H1 is one of the more exciting developments in coffee breeding, offering resilience for farmers alongside the potential for exceptional cup quality when grown in the right environment.

To give it its full name, Centroamericano H1 F1 Hybrid is a Sarchimor. The Catimors and Sarchimors are a large group of coffee varietals created by crossing Arabica varieties with Timor Hybrid, a naturally occurring hybrid of Arabica and Robusta first discovered nearly 100 years ago in Timor. In the case of Centroamericano H1, its parents are T5296 (a Timor Hybrid crossed with Villa Sarchi) and Rume Sudan, an Ethiopian landrace.

H1 is part of a new generation of F1 hybrids developed through collaboration between CIRAD (France), CATIE (Costa Rica), PROMECAFE, World Coffee Research, and other partners. After years of field trials, it was officially released to Central American coffee farmers around 2010 with the goal of combining high yields, disease resistance, and excellent cup quality.

There are clear reasons it has become popular on specialty coffee farms across the region. The plant is quick-growing, resistant to leaf rust, and highly productive. Trials have shown H1 can produce 22-47% more yield than traditional varieties, with hybrid vigour often leading to 30-50% more output and earlier fruiting.

While Catimors and Sarchimors as a broader group sometimes suffer from a reputation for lower flavour potential, Centroamericano H1 has repeatedly demonstrated that it can produce outstanding coffee in the right conditions. A Nicaraguan lot scored 90.5 points in the 2017 Cup of Excellence, earning a Presidential Award and proving that resilience and quality can go hand in hand.

This balance of practicality and potential is why we’re excited to share the Centroamericano H1 from Finca Argentina. For the Martinez family, H1 offers both insurance against leaf rust and a proven track record in the cup. The coffee produced is comfortably on par with the farm’s other varietals, and we hope you enjoy discovering this lesser-known variety from our wonderful friends.

• Country: El Salvador
  
• Region: Apaneca-Ilamatepec
  
• Department: Ahuachapán
  
• Municipality: Ahuachapán
  
• Nearest Town: Turin
  
• Farm: Finca Argentina
  
• Producer: The Martinez Family
  
• Dry Mill: Los Ausoles
  
• Elevation: 1,300 m.a.s.l.
  
• Variety: Centroamericano (H1)
  
• Processing Method: Honey
  
• GPS: 13°56'29.4"N 89°47'04.1"W

Cupping Notes: Chocolate ganache, red apple, caramel.

Cup of Excellence Cupping Scores

• Clean Cup: 6.5/8
  
• Sweetness: 6.5/8
  
• Acidity: 6/8
  
• Mouthfeel: 7/8
  
• Flavour: 6.5/8
  
• Aftertaste: 6/8
  
• Balance: 6/8
  
• Overall: 6.5/8
  
• Correction: +36
  
• Total: 86.5/100

If you'd like to find out more about how we score coffees, make sure to read our blog post “What Do Coffee Cupping Scores Actually Mean?” and if you'd like to try cupping yourself, we've got a guide to that too! What is Coffee Cupping.

Medium Dark - This may go a little hotter than you expect, but you need to get it through first crack and just up to the first pops of second crack, no further.