THE STORY BEHIND

La Divina Providencia from El Salvador is a fantastic representation of coffee from the Apaneca Llamatepec Mountain range, within the slopes of the Santa Ana Volcano.

Roberto Samuel Ulloa Vilanova bought La Divina Providencia ten years ago. When Roberto took over the farm, the land and trees were in poor condition having been abandoned in previous years because the low coffee prices in El Salvador at that time drove the farm out of production. Since buying the farm, Roberto has rejuvenated the land and trees, planted over 8000 Bourbon and Kenya varietals on an additional plot and installed a complete washed‐process mill and drying screens. The farm and processing facilities have had a total overhaul and the improvement in production and quality is remarkable.

Besides the blissful terroir and climate, there are three main activities that have improved the quality of the farm considerably in the past: the plants are enormously strengthened by the use of Huisil, an organic fertilizer that consist of bone meal, organ/gut meal, chicken manure, coffee pulp, soap stone, calcium carbonate, and salt. Roberto also implemented an adequate preventive disease control for Roya and Anthracnose (Dieback disease) together with an aggressive foliar nutritional program. Finally he uses biological compounds and products consisting of a variety of different species of bacteria and bacillus. These ensure an adequate control of harmful insect larvea and nematodes.

There is a meticulous picking initiative on the farm, together with a hand sorting system practiced in the fields before the cherries make it to the processing mill. This is a natural processed lot, sundried and stored waiting for the moisture content of the beans to come down before shipment.

This micro lot is 100% Orange Bourbon variety and what sets this coffee apart from most coffees in the area is a slightly more acid-driven intensity.
Vanilla, plum and mandarin flavours stand out in this incredibly pretty coffee. A clean, sugary body supports persimmons and cocoa in the finish.

THE FERMENTATION PROCESS

Dry process seems simple: pick the fruit, lay it out in the sun until it turns from red to brown to near-back, and then hull off off the thick, dried outer layer in one step to reveal the green bean. It is a method suited to arid regions, where the sun and heat can dry the seed inside the intact fruit skin.

It's often referred to as "natural coffee" because of its simplicity, and because the fruit remains intact and undisturbed, a bit like drying grapes into raisins. Since it requires minimal investment, the dry process method is a default to create cheap commodity-grade coffee in areas that have the right climate capable of drying the fruit and seed.

But it’s a fail in humid or wet regions. If the drying isn't progressing fast enough, the fruit degrades, rots or molds.

Dry-processed coffees can also be wildly inconsistent. If you want a cleanly-fruited, sweet, intense cup, dry process (DP) takes more hand labor than the wet process. Even the most careful pickers will take green unripe or semi-ripe coffee off the branch as they pick red, ripe cherry. If these are not removed in the first days of drying, the green turns to brown that is hard to distinguish from the ripe fruit.