El Salvador: San Jose, Red Bourbon

Think of a Chocolate Teacake - milk chocolate, then creamy marshmallow sweetness and a delicate biscuit on the finish. All of that’s carried by a lovely creamy and full bodied mouthfeel.

Gloria Rodríguez is a woman you may well know if you've been brewing with us for a while, as we’ve been buying her amazing coffee since 2009. She is a fourth-generation coffee grower who, with the support of her siblings, oversees six farms in the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range, totalling thirty-eight hectares: San José, Mamatita, El Porvenir, Nejapa, Nueva Granada, and La Lagunita. Gloria has broken gender barriers in an industry traditionally dominated by men, personally supervising every step at the farm level. 
 
The Salvadorean department of Ahuachapán sits in the west of the country, with the lofty Apaneca-Ilamatepec Range and the Cerro Grande de Apaneca rising on its southern edge. The mountain slopes of Finca San José, at an average altitude of 1,500 meters above sea level, are fully shaded by trees that help preserve the coffee crop and support the local ecosystem. The farm is home to diverse wildlife and is located on the northwestern slope of an extinct volcanic crater, featuring a unique microclimate with an average temperature of 17°C and rich, loamy clay soil ideal for specialty coffee production. The farm primarily produces red Bourbon, with smaller amounts of orange and yellow Bourbon, as well as Elefante. The volcano crater also contains a small lagoon, "Laguna de Las Ninfas," known for its abundance of water lilies.

Through the generations, Finca San Jose has passed through the hands of many committed farmers, beginning in 1815 when José María Rodriguez and Josefina Rodriguez (Gloria's great-grandparents) planted the first coffee trees with their own hands. It has since passed down the line through José's son, Israel Rodriguez, then followed by Jose Maria Rodriguez. Jose Maria took care of the farm until it came to Gloria as the most recent owner. In its original incarnation, the farm was once large but was divided among Gloria’s father and his three brothers. Her father later bought back land from one brother, recombining it into the San José we know today, which is still relatively small by El Salvador standards at around 10 hectares. 
 
San Jose is Gloria’s favourite of her farms. Until very recently, all the plants there were planted by her father – its productivity has been dropping off as the plants get older so she’s starting to replant now, but she’s also sad to have to remove those coffee trees her father planted. So far, about a third of the plants are new, whilst two thirds are around 60 years old.  
 
One of the interesting things about Gloria’s farms is that her team, run by the foreman Tonio, still use a lot of traditional techniques and systems from El Salvador. One unique example of this are the techniques called “agobio” and “agobio de raíz”. The English for Agobio is burden and refers to how a coffee tree bends when its branches are laden with fruit. Agobio involves bending a young coffee plant at its base and running it horizontal. Upright branches are grown off this, which have their own branches. This effectively allows one seedling to provide four or more coffee plants with a shared root. Agobio de raíz is even more complicated, as it involves bending the young plant at the root and growing the uprights out of the soil. These traditional techniques are super interesting and largely forgotten on newer farms which have taken a more modern, standardised approach. It is a pleasure to see traditional Salvadorean methods kept alive. 

Gloria works under strict specialty coffee standards across all her farms. These include only fully ripe cherries being harvested, careful milling and appreciative pruning. Coffee pickers are selected from her staff based on their experience and passion, and their understanding of the requirements to obtain high-quality coffee, and Gloria supervises the whole process directly with the support of Antonio 'Tonio' Avelino - her farm foreman. 

• Country: El Salvador
• Department: Ahuachapán
• Municipality: Apaneca
• Nearest city: El Saitillal
• Farm: Finca San José
• Owner: Gloria Rodriguez
• Farm manager: Antonio Avelino
• Processing method: Washed
• Varietal: Red Bourbon
• Altitude: 1,500 m.a.s.l.
• Average annual rainfall: 2,500mm
• Average temperature: 17ºC
• Type of soil: Clay loam
• Type of shade: Pepeto, inga sp, and other native trees
• Typical native fauna: Armadillo, gray fox, agouti, pocket gopher, magpie, turquoise-browed motmot

Medium to Medium-Dark

This classic Red Bourbon responds beautifully to a slightly deeper roast profile that brings out its rich, chocolatey character. We're aiming for that chocolate teacake experience – milk chocolate sweetness, marshmallow creaminess, and a delicate biscuit note on the finish, all wrapped up in a full, velvety body.

Roasting Notes:

We take this coffee through first crack and allow it to develop well in the gap, pushing right to the edge of second crack before dropping – but no further. This is the sweet spot where the sugars have fully caramelised to bring out those milk chocolate and marshmallow notes without tipping into darker roast territory that would obscure the coffee's natural sweetness and complexity.

The washed processing and the traditional farming methods Gloria employs result in exceptionally clean, consistent beans that can handle this level of development beautifully. The sixty-year-old Red Bourbon trees (alongside newer plantings) produce fruit with remarkable density and sweetness, which translates into a forgiving roast that builds body and chocolate notes without becoming bitter or flat.

For Home Roasters

If you're roasting at home, listen carefully for the tail end of first crack and give this coffee plenty of development time – around 90-120 seconds after first crack subsides. You're looking to approach that first few pops of second crack, which signals you've hit the right level of development. The coffee should smell deeply chocolatey and sweet, not sharp or smoky. If you're getting those marshmallow and biscuit notes in the aroma, you're right on target.

Tasting Notes: Milk chocolate, biscuit, marshmallow.

Cup of Excellence Cupping Scores

• Clean cup: 6/8
• Sweetness: 6.5/8
• Acidity: 6/8
• Mouthfeel: 7/8
• Flavour: 6.5/8
• Aftertaste: 6/8
• Balance: 6.5/8
• Overall: 6.5/8
• Correction: +36
• Total: 87/100

If you would like to find out more about how we score coffees, make sure to read our blog post "What Do Coffee Cuppings Scores Actually Mean?" by clicking here.

Our coffee is roasted fresh and ships quickly – which means it might arrive a little lively. Here's the thing: freshly roasted beans are still busy releasing carbon dioxide (a natural byproduct of roasting), and all that activity can make your brew taste a bit sharp or unsettled.

Give it a few days to calm down and something lovely happens. Those brighter, edgier notes mellow out, sweetness develops, and the flavours you're actually after can really come into focus.

We recommend resting your coffee for at least 5-7 days from the roast date on the bag before brewing. A little patience goes a long way.

That said, this is just what we've found works best – not a rule. If you can't wait, we completely understand. Tuck in whenever you like.