Buenos Aires (Santa Ana) - El Salvador

Finca Buenos Aires lies near the town of El Congo, Santa Ana in El Salvador’s privileged Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range. At an average altitude of 1,200 meters above sea level, the farm has a long standing reputation for high yields and an excellent cup, due in part to its exquisitely maintained old Bourbon coffee trees. The region’s rich dark soils and blessed climate make the perfect environment for spectacular cup quality. The view is equally stunning. The farm’s 25 hectares rise high above Lake Coatepeque and have a view of the lake and the Santa Ana volcano.

Buenos Aires was acquired by the Lima family in 2010; however, the family has been in the coffee business since approximately 1890. Over the course of more than a century, the family has gradually acquired new properties, many of which lie in the same regions. In fact, Buenos Aires is contiguous with thee famous Finca Rumania, one of the Lima family’s first coffee farms. When the family first purchased the farm, it had been worked in a very ‘traditional way’ for many years – which is to say, with some under-investment. This was during a time during which many coffee farmers in El Salvador were forced to abandon or sell their land, as coffee prices bottomed out and climate change made it more difficult and expensive to produce the crop. When the Limas purchase Buenos Aires, they gave the farm a new lease on life. Within a very short time the property was again flourishing, and the family even placed in the 2015 Cup of Excellence!

The Lima family retained the original name of the estate. They suppose that the name was originally given due to the privileged location in which it finds itself: with kind and gentle breezes, the farm’s Buenos Aires (good winds) serve it well.

Many areas of the farm have been replanted with Anacafe 14, a variety that is related to Pacamara with greater resistance to rust and high cup quality. The old Bourbon trees are still productive, however, and produce some of the farm’s most exceptional lots (such as this one).

All coffee from the farm is carefully harvested by hand and meticulously sorted before being delivered for processing to the farm’s own wet mill. Coffee is pulped using a Penagos Eco-pulper, which uses minimal water. All processing by-products (such as honey water and pulp) are collected, environmentally processed and reused as organic fertiliser.

After being fermented for around 8 hours (depending on ambient temperature at the time) the coffee is washed in rain water and once free of any traces of mucilage, the parchment coffee is delivered to dry under shade on African beds. The slow, even drying times produce a better and more long lasting coffee, the Limas have found. All waste water is treated so as to prevent groundwater contamination.