El Majahual is part of a larger farm that was divided some years back. Majahual averages 1500 meters although much of the farm is higher up. This year we decided to offer lots from those specific plots on the farm that are at the upper altitudes, that are basically 1600 meters and up. These are called "tablones" which literally means plank or board. Along with one other plot on the farm, I found that the La Montana was distinct in the cup, so we chose to separate it as a special lot. La Montana is named as such since it cuts a vertical swath up the steep slope all the way to the edge of the natural forest preserve at the top of the farm. At that altitude, the coffee just doesn't produce due to the cold air and cloud cover. So Montana is as high as it gets on the farm. Besides selecting by tablon, the farm is impressive in other ways. I visited last year, and again in 2011, and was amazed by the 50 to 80 year old Bourbon trees. There is a minority percentage of Pacas at El Majahual, which is a local type of Bourbon as well. The trees at the farm seemed so healthy, with great coffee production on branches from top to bottom, despite their age. It proves that long-term, traditional farming techniques can result in good production volumes and cup quality too, rather than new techniques that exhaust small hybrid plants that must then be replaced every 10 years.

From the ground coffee, the fragrance has slight orange hints, with dominate cocoa and caramel sweetness. While pouring the hot water caramel and maple syrup scents come out, with semi-sweet chocolate and almond as well. La Montana is one of the highest parts of Finca El Majahual and I think it shows in the cup. It has a brighter flavor profile, and a little lighter in body, yet still it is a classic, balanced Bourbon cultivar cup overall. It's a well-structured cup due to the somewhat bracing brightness, which has slight citrus character in the light roasts, but more apple-like at Full City roast. La Montana develops a nice roast sweetness, with rich hazelnut-laced chocolate flavors coming out in the middle roast ranges. As it cools the cup has a more caramelly sweetness. The body seems lighter initially but intensifies and becomes quite creamy. The cup finishes with bittersweet notes, a bit of mape and caramel, with a slightly tannic almond skin accent. It makes a very nice SO espresso as well when roasted to Full City or Full City+ levels.

We have bought small lots of Finca La Montanita for years now, often the Pacamara coffee, but also Bourbon. When I cupped the Bourbon early this season in El Salvador, I was really amazed; it was the best coffee I tasted on the entire trip. The owner of Montanita is Antonio Rene Aguilar Lemus, and this is a fairly small farm of 17.5 Hecatares in total. The farm was handed down through the Aguilar family. The Aguilars run their own wet-mill so all steps of the coffee cultivation and processing are under the control of the farm. While the farm is not organic certified, it could be; they do not use herbicides and practices manual weed control. They use organic fertilizers like chicken manure, coffee pulp and they count on nature for insect control. La Montanita is located in the Alotepec Mountain Range and has excellent altitude for coffee (1460 meters, 4790 feet) which accounts for the slowly-maturing, dense coffee seeds and better acidity in the cup. La Montanita placed several times in the Cup of Excellence, including #2 place in 2006 and #3 in 2010. We offered this coffee many times goung back to 2004, when we bought the CoE lot.

The fragrance from the dry grounds is wonderful; vanilla and caramel, blackberry (mora) jam. In the wet aroma there is a syrupy sweetness, black currant, grape jelly. The cup is delightful; it has a dark sweetness, the balanced acidity of ripe fruit, syrupy body and rounded mouthfeel. Plum and grape notes express the fruit qualities of the cup, with a slight winey aspect. The cup has a lush, mouth-filling quality. It's bright, but not with an aggressive acidity. I find it remarkable that the coffee maintains it's character through the roast range. City+ roast (as we often find) has the best expression of this coffee, in the fruited brighter notes as well as tenor-level roast taste. This rather restrained (and very sweet) flavor profile seems like it might be amazing for SO espresso: I am firing up my espresso machine right now to pull shots of the Full City test roast!

Finca Matalapa is a classic estate coffee, long before there were mini-mills and micro-lots. It has a complete independent mill to service the farm, from the tree through wet-processing, patio drying, hulling, preparation, to loading the coffee in jute bags and packing the shipping container. The mill is filled with fantastic, classic coffee equipment painted in bold colors. And it's the passion of the owner, Vickie Ann Dalton de Diaz, and the mechanical love of the archaic on the part of her Francisco Diaz that keeps the mill running and the coffee tasting so wonderful! Finca Matalapa is in the Libertad area, not far from the capital of San Salvador, on a west-facing slope ranging from 1200 meters up to the ridge top at 1350 meters. It's a 4th generation coffee estate totaling 120 hectrares and was founded in the late 1800's by Fidelia Lima, great grandmother of the Vickie. She maintains 14 acres of virgin tropical forest and keeps her coffee plants shaded with over forty varieties of larger trees. The cup has the character While most of our El Salvadors are Bourbon coffees (or Tekisic a local Bourbon type), because of the strong winds in the area they find the native Salvador Pacas varietal to fare better in this region. Pacas is a natural mutation of the Bourbon varietal. This is from a particular part of the farm called Tablon El Naranjo. A Tablon literally means a board or plank. It is named Naranjo for the orange trees planted on the farm.

The coffee has great balance and body, an approachable and easy drinking coffee. The dry fragrance from the ground coffee has hazelnuts and honey granola scents. Adding hot water, the wet aromatics give a more volatile aromatic emphasis to the dry fragrance. There are praline, almonds and a hint of plum in the pleasing smells. The cup flavors add to this a unique jasmine tea aspect at City+ roast, with the cup dominated by layered nutty roast tones, lemon grass, and a twist of orange rind in the the finish. The body is not that heavy, but seems dense and opaque. It has moderate acidity, less so than other El Salvador coffees we have now, and the balance between brightness, flavor and body makes for an interesting SO espresso at Full City roast. It's not the most complex cup, but has great flavors; a real drinkin' coffee.