Our Partner Farm

OWNER - Fernando Lima

ALTITUDE – 1,900 metres above sea level

LOCATION – Santa Ana, El Salvador 

PROCESS – Washed

VARIETY – Red Bourbon

FARM SIZE - 50 hectares

SCA SCORE – 86

One of our all-time favourite coffees, the washed process Bourbon from Fernando Lima’s award winning farm.

Finca Santa Elena is located in Palo de Campana, Santa Ana and is regarded as one of best organic farms in the country. In fact, Fernando's coffees have placed in each of the last 19 COE awards, dating back to the origin of the competition in El Salvador.  

Santa Elena was established as a coffee plantation around 1930 and has been part of the Lima family business since. Situated on the slopes of the Santa Ana volcano, Santa Elena is known for its rich and fertile volcanic soil. Flora and fauna are abundant in Santa Elena with a large portion of the farm preserved as a natural forest due to its location beside “Parque Nacional Los Volcanes”, a national forest reserve. 

Fernando admits producing coffee in this manner is labour intensive as the many processes; weeding manually, applying organic compost, pruning the native shade canopy trees, and selectively picking ripe cherries by hand all take time and an experienced workforce. However, the Lima family’s continued success in the years following their organic conversion has come to reflect a measurable benefit to brewed coffee cup quality: Since the 2006 eruption, the family has had 16 of their coffees awarded the Cup of Excellence distinction, confirming that they are consistently amongst the best farms in El Salvador.