Heart & Graft Coffee Roastery: Lovesack: El Salvador, Finca Las Mercedes, Honey Process

We cupped a range of potential Loveshack coffees, and this one made us a little bit weak at the knees! It's viscous and sweet like honey with a juicy body. It's very well structured, with tropical fruit nuances of pineapple and pink grapefruit. Two of us were sure there was a banana note in there as well, but that's the joy of tasting coffee! It's the balance of sweetness, body and tropical fruit acidity that makes this a stunner.

Las Mercedes sits on the side of the San Salvador Volcano, overlooking San Salvador, El Salvodor’s capital city. As well as being on the side of a volcano and overlooking the capital, Las Mercedes is surrounded by 100 hectares of nature reserve including a remarkable ‘mini rainforest’ with a noticeable temperature drop as you reach the very highest coffee areas. This micro climate provides great potential for exceptional coffee.

Given the importance of the preservation of the forest, the Aguilar family, in conjunction with a local NGO, have two park rangers that look after the protected natural forest year-round. Coffee grown in forests always has the potential to be special, being its natural habitat and where it originated.

The Aguilars work with a mill nearby to ferment and process the coffee, utilising a method of optical sorting, 12 hour fermentations and sun drying for around 14 days on clay patios.