Follow me on instagram

Contact us

Home  /  Food  /  Home  /  Lifestyle  /  News  /  Aida Batlle: Cherry Fincas for Nowness

Aida Batlle: Cherry Fincas for Nowness

Aida Batlle: Cherry Fincas for Nowness

Inside the Mountain-Top Farms and Mill Producing El Salvador’s Premium Coffee
Monterrey-based photographer Alejandro Cartagena braves the steep slopes of the Salvadoran volcano Santa Ana to visit Aida Batlle’s hard-to-reach coffee fincas, Kilimanjaro and Los Alpes. A fifth generation coffee producer and renowned coffee aficionado, Batlle has been running the two farms—named by her mountain-obsessed father—for the past decade, producing some of the most flavorsome beans in the world, a fact Batlle puts down to the area’s dense volcanic soil and startlingly high altitude. Three to four times a year Batlle and her dedicated team pick coffee cherries—the fruits of the coffee plant—when they’re blood red or burgundy in color. Taken to a nearby mill overnight, the cherries are then washed and left to dry naturally on vast outdoor patios before being distributed to leading roasters around the world including Stumptown and Counter Culture in the US and Square Mile in the UK, whose customers seek the beans’ rare and full-bodied sweetness. “The location is as beautiful as the fincas themselves,” says Cartagena, who was provided a tour of the local area in Batlle’s hardened 4×4. “There is a feeling of pure nature when you’re up there: mountains, fog, sunlight bleeding through the clouds. Everything is lush and alive.” Here Batlle reveals how to pick the right coffee cherries and the dangers of living on the side of a volcano. Read full story here

Category:

Date:

Prev
Next