Beneficio El Manzano: Partida #1 (Batch One)

Over the past two months, I have had the opportunity to volunteer with a company here in El Salvador, named Cuatro M. Although many faceted, they operate a coffee milling and exporting business in Santa Ana, and have given me the chance to shadow, and experience firsthand, life on a coffee farm. I am really amped for all that lies ahead, and am thankful to the owner, Emilio Lopez Diaz for exposing me to a side of coffee I never knew.

Preface

My hope is to feature excerpts from a coffee farm, mill, and roastery, about the life, work, treasure and toils within them. I want to tell of the coffee trees and the bramble, of the beauty I keep fresh on my mind, and of the four, white-lined, criss-crossing scars on my left arm, reminding me both are real.

The Coffee Tree and the Bramble - Beneficio El Manzano: Partida #1 (Batch One)

The 2011-2012 coffee harvest has officially begun at Beneficio El Manzano, in Santa Ana, El Salvador; receiving its first two batches of bourbon cherries on the twelfth of September from farms: Finca El Manzano and Ayutepeque.

After processing and drying, the pergamino, or parchment coffee, is bagged in burlap and transferred to the bodega, or warehouse, for thirty days to await hulling, the process of removing the parchment, or dry pulp, from the beans. (Complete details of the Milling Process at Beneficio El Manzano).

Then, this past thursday, Eduardo, from quality control, or the lab side of the company, hulled and roasted samples of both batches for Cuatro M's first cupping of the season, performed by himself and three of us others, including Emilio, the owner.

While evident of the early harvest, the cupping was, in itself, ceremonial of beginnings, for Cuatro M, of a promising new season that will certainly surpass those before in quantity and always expectantly in quality; and for me, of new tastes within the cup, new characters within the story, and a new side of the mountain I'd only ever talked about exploring.

Stay posted for upcoming events:

Sunday, October 16, 2011: Sustainable Harvest: Let's Talk Coffee 2011, tour of El Manzano Farm, Mill, and Roastery.