El Salvador - El Mirador, Washed Espresso

Dark chocolate, cherry, roasted almond and vanilla. Balanced, sweet and syrupy.

$26.00 SGD

In Stock, shipping within 24 hours.

Organic Certified
Glyphosate Free
Grown Under Shade
Selective Hand Picking

Fernando Lima is undoubtedly El Salvador's best organic coffee producer. His Red Bourbon variety lots are stalwarts of our selection at Dukes, and this washed lot from Finca El Mirador is simply a delight. El Mirador is one of Fernando's high-altitude plots, at 1,850 masl, where he has been expertly cultivating heritage varieties in an organic semi-forested farming system since he took over the farm from his father over 30 years ago.

Hand picked cherries are transported to the Los Balcanes Beneficio, located on site at Fernando's neighbouring Farm (Finca Serbia) 30 minutes away and immediately de-pulped. The parchment is then soaked for 24 hours under water in a ceramic fermentation tank followed by a 6 hour dry (aerobic) fermentation. Finally, after 6 hours, the parchment is washed again to remove any remaining mucilage and then transferred for drying on African Beds (under Green House shade) for 16 to 20 days.

Producer	FERNANDO LIMA
Processing	WASHED
Varieties	RED BOURBON
Harvest	APRIL 2025
Altitude	1,850 MASL
Region	Palo de Campana, Santa Ana

20.0g

ground coffee dose

29

seconds

44g

espresso shot yield

93.0

brew temperature

This recipe was developed on a La Marzoco Linea PB, using a Anfim SPII+ grinder. We encourage you to play around to meet your personal tastes and equipment setup.

Fernando Lima proudly describes his coffee farms as a “Time capsule”; an idyllic snapshot of agriculture from the early twentieth century where farming practices were derived from the distilled knowledge and experience of generations.

However, it was not a romanticised view of traditional farming methods that first led the Lima family to seek organic certification. In 2006 the Volcano Santa Ana (Ilamtepeque) erupted, destroying much of the farm’s infrastructure and damaging the coffee plantations. Mineral dense volcanic ash covered much of the plantation as it does approximately every 100 years. In conjunction with the chemical agricultural products that had been used on the farm prior to the eruption, the ash served to acidify the soil to such an extent that synthetic fertilizers were no longer viable and in fact would prove detrimental to plant health.

Faced with a decision that had already been partially made by circumstance, the Lima family moved to take advantage of the natural wealth provided by the volcanic geology of their farms and restructure their entire operation, including the Balcanes coffee processing mill to be certified organic and adopt natural and sustainable methods of production.

Fernando Lima proudly describes his coffee farms as a “Time capsule”...

VARIETY

Red Bourbon

PROCESS

Washed

ALTITUDE

1,850 masl

An idyllic snapshot of agriculture from the early twentieth century where farming practices were derived from the distilled knowledge and experience of generations.

Fernando admits producing coffee in this manner is labor intensive as the many processes; weeding manually, applying organic compost, pruning the native shade canopy trees, and selectively picking ripe cherries by hand all take time and an experienced workforce. However, the Lima family’s continued success in the years following their organic conversion has come to reflect a measurable benefit to brewed coffee cup quality: Since the 2006 eruption, the family has had 16 of their coffees awarded the Cup of Excellence distinction, confirming that they are consistently amongst the best farms in El Salvador.