This month brings us to Los Pirineos, a farm we're excited to pour for the first time. The coffee is grown by Diego Baraona, whose family has been farming this same ground in Usulután, El Salvador, for more than a hundred and thirty years. He took the reins in 2020, but the shade trees overhead were planted by his father, Gilberto, long before that: the kind of decision a farmer makes for the next generation, not this one.
The farm sits at 1,400 meters on volcanic slopes in the Cordillera Tecapa Chinameca, where the surrounding peaks form a natural wind tunnel that helps the coffee dry evenly. Diego also keeps a garden of nearly seventy coffee varieties on the property, mostly out of curiosity.
For Volume 09: Sweet Spot we’ve sourced a red honey process. After the cherry skin comes off, the sticky mucilage stays on the seed as it dries on raised beds for two to three weeks, giving the coffee real body without losing its brightness.
The cup is bright and bakery-sweet, like a peach tea cookie dusted with lemon and orange blossom honey. It's the kind of coffee worth a second sip before you've finished puzzling out the first.
The story doesn't end here. Explore more in our Learning Hub:
El Salvador: The origin that bred it's own varietals
Washed, natural, or honey? The three coffee processing methods compared
