El Salvador: Finca Argentina, Centroamericano H1, Natural

Imagine a slice of banana bread spread with thin-cut marmalade and topped with a few pomegranate seeds. Sweet, tangy, and beautifully balanced, this is a coffee you'll keep coming back to.

Roland last visited El Salvador in February as the harvest at Finca Argentina was just coming to an end. The farm is at a lower altitude than other producers we work with in El Salvador, so that shifts the harvest a little earlier than San Jose or Nejapa, for example. He travelled with Mauricio to visit the Los Ausoles mill to cup the various seasonal coffee lots available this year. This Natural Process Centroamericano H1 lot cupped incredibly well and is a great example of what we love about Salvadoran single origin coffee.

On The Farm

Near the town of Turin, in the Ahuachapán department of El Salvador, you’ll find Finca Argentina. It’s located in the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range, surrounded by natural hot springs at an altitude of 1,300 metres above sea level. The farm’s 35 hectares are separated into 7 distinct areas or "tablons". Each of these individual plots has its own character, shaped by the landscape and the small peculiarities of microclimate that come with changes in altitude, aspect, soil, and even local volcanic activity.

Over time, the team at Finca Argentina have put a lot of effort into exploring different varietals, discovering what grows best on each of the farm’s 7 tablons. The Guachipelin tablon spans 6 hectares and was replanted in 2016 with H1 (Centroamericano), Yellow Bourbon, Icatu, and a small amount of SL-28.

The Martinez Family

The farm was first acquired by the Martinez family in 1967. Dr Luis Guillermo Martinez bought the estate, and it quickly became his favourite and produced well. By the time his son, Mauricio, inherited it in 2008, cherry yields had dropped significantly and he was unsure how best to proceed with his newly owned farm. It was here that his son, and our now good friend, Alejandro, stepped in.

He had just relocated back to El Salvador after working as a city banker in New York and decided to lend a hand to his father’s business interests while looking for work. Ale’s interest was piqued when he saw that the farm had been classified for a Q auction in 2005, showing it had the potential for great coffee. He and his cousin, based in London, set about sending green coffee samples to roasters wherever they could, seeking a specialty buyer. One of those samples landed with us in 2008, and we’ve been buying ever since.

Mauricio and Alejandro both now live in Canada, but Mauricio still owns and oversees the farm remotely. He relies on his farm manager and the on-site team to handle day-to-day operations and to keep him up to date, while visiting El Salvador regularly to check in. The Martinez family employ 50 people during harvest and 30 throughout the rest of the year. Mauricio's daughter Beatrix, who hadn't previously been involved in coffee, is also now stepping in to help with the family business. Processing of the coffee is carried out at the Los Ausoles dry mill, a cooperative facility in Ahuachapán. They have a very good relationship with Mauricio and have shown great consistency and reliability for us as buyers.

Highly Skilled Workers

Throughout the growing season at Finca Argentina, individual workers are given a lot of responsibility over pruning and managing trees. On many farms, pruning would be quite regimented, for example every other tree receiving a skeleton prune in a particular section. At Finca Argentina, these decisions are left much more to the knowledge of the staff, who decide on a plant-by-plant basis what kind of pruning is needed as they work through an area.

It is easy to ruin coffee production if the wrong pruning choices are made, so this demonstrates a huge amount of trust and is only possible because the farm retains and develops workers’ skills over the long term.

El Salvador has been hit hard by the wider labour shortage affecting other Central American countries. Fortunately, Finca Argentina is currently managing well, although they continue exploring ways to retain sufficient staff during harvest season. The Martinez family employ 50 people during harvest and 30 throughout the rest of the year. They contribute labour and materials to improve local infrastructure and grow 25kg of corn annually for each worker.

They’re also implementing more ecological management practices, using compost and other organic products to minimise environmental impact while intercropping beans to enrich the soil. Their work has improved biodiversity and cup quality, and the future for coffee production at Finca Argentina is looking very bright.

Centroamericano H1

The Centroamericano varietal might not be the best known, but we think it's certainly worth paying attention to. Sometimes misunderstood, Centroamericano H1 is one of the more exciting developments in coffee breeding, offering resilience for farmers and the potential for exceptional coffee when grown in the right place.

To give it its full name, Centroamericano H1 F1 Hybrid is a Sarchimor. The Catimors and Sarchimors are a large group of coffee varietals created by crossing Arabica varietals with the Timor Hybrid, a naturally occurring hybrid of Arabica and Robusta discovered nearly 100 years ago in Timor. In the case of Centroamericano H1, its parents are T5296 (a Timor Hybrid crossed with Villa Sarchi) and Rume Sudan, an Ethiopian landrace.

H1 is part of a new generation of F1 hybrids, developed through collaboration between CIRAD (France), CATIE (Costa Rica), PROMECAFE, World Coffee Research, and other partners. After years of trials, it was officially released to Central American coffee farmers around 2010, with the goal of combining high yields, disease resistance, and excellent cup quality. There are clear reasons it has become popular on specialty coffee farms across the region: the plant is quick-growing, resistant to leaf rust, and high-yielding. Trials have shown H1 can produce 22-47% more yield than traditional varieties, with hybrid vigour often leading to 30-50% more output and earlier fruiting.

While Catimors and Sarchimors as a group sometimes suffer from a reputation for lower flavour potential, Centroamericano H1 has proven it can deliver excellent brews in the right conditions. A lot from Nicaragua scored 90.5 in the 2017 Cup of Excellence, earning a Presidential Award, proof that resilience and quality can go hand in hand.

This balance of practicality and potential is why we're excited to share the Centroamericano H1 from Finca Argentina. For the Martinez family, H1 is both insurance against leaf rust and a proven success in the cup. The coffee produced is comfortably on par with the farm's other varietals, and we hope you really enjoy this lesser-known varietal from our wonderful friends.

• Country: El Salvador
• Region: Apaneca-Ilamatepec
• Department: Ahuachapán
• Municipality: Ahuachapán
• Nearest Town: Turin
• Farm: Finca Argentina
• Producer: The Martinez Family
• Dry Mill: Los Ausoles
• Elevation: 1,300 m.a.s.l.
• Variety: Centroamericano (H1)
• Processing Method: Natural
• GPS: 13°56'29.4"N 89°47'04.1"W

Cupping Notes: Banana Bread, Marmalade, Pomegranate

Cup of Excellence Cupping Scores

• Clean Cup: 6/8
• Sweetness: 7/8
• Acidity: 6/8
• Mouthfeel: 6.5/8
• Flavour: 6.5/8
• Aftertaste: 6.5/8
• Balance: 7/8
• Overall: 6.5/8
• Correction: +36
• Total: 88/100

If you'd like to find out more about how we score coffees, make sure to read our blog post What Do Coffee Cupping Scores Actually Mean?.

Medium Dark - Give this coffee a confident push through first crack and into development, right up to the edge of second crack before you drop.