El Salvador Honey Finca Divina

This El Salvador is a red honey processed (puled natural) coffee on the Finca Divina estate. It is the bourbon varietal and is one of La Minita's partner farms, ensuring that they have overseen the quality of the coffee, as well as upheld environmental and social standards.

Being a honey coffee, it is overall sweet with a soft mouthfeel, but the initial taste of tart (plum) turns into floral and citrus and ends with cocoa. The fruit is less prominent than in a natural-processed coffee, but it is apparent. You don't have to use your imagination too much. A coffee like this appeals to pretty much everyone in the world, because if they want "normal coffee" it's not so weird that they find it unusual. However, if you like interesting coffees, there is enough here that you can sip at it with great satisfaction and keep going back for a refill. Honey coffees tend to be our most requested and popular coffees, and El Salvador in particular has been a favorite with our customers for several years.

By definition, a honey coffee has had the sugars of the coffee fruit imbued into the pit during the processing, so it is a delicate bean that is susceptible to scorching. Home roasting units won't have as much of a problem, but if you have a large drum roaster, don't preheat it above 350 degrees. Then nudge the heat up gently, evenly, get it through the 1st cracks, maybe wait 30 seconds, let it out. If in doubt, err on the side of being too light. As you get darker, its still nice, but it loses its undertones, however, honey coffees do add a lot of sweetness and crema to espresso blends at this roast level. As you get into the 2nd cracks the sugars burn and it loses its appeal altogether. Try to keep the roast at 15 minutes or less. High airflow is always helpful, so honey coffees are a good choice if you have an air roaster.

This coffee arrived in the US in August 2018.