Jan. 27, 2019 – El Salvador – In an effort to familarize ourselves with the culture in El Salvador, our tour guide, Arnoldo, has taken us from Rosario Church to the crypt of Saint Romero to the street market and now to the mountains and a coffee tour at El Carmen Coffee Resort
After wiggling our way through a catwalk of machinery, we exited to the drying field. The rows of beans are moved with rakes every eight hours. We thought it odd how employees walked on the rows of beans, but our tour guide assured us the beans are still covered in a hull.
We moved on to a very large storage shed where 100-pound bags of coffee beans are stored. The different levels and various colored bags (see photo) are from various growers in the area. El Carmen will grade the beans and then ship the best to clients which we were told included Starbucks. We were also told the biggest buyer with the best coffee continues to be Illy in Italy.
After the bagging process we went into the plant where the beans were roasted. One of these days maybe YouTube will have smell-o-videos. (a-la John Waters and Odorama)
Following the 20-minute tour of the coffee-making operation we sat down for a sample cup. Much to everyone’s surprise, the gal making the coffee put 12 generous tablespoons into the white fabric filter also known as a coffee sock.
Below is a coffee commercial via David and Nancy Slinde. Love it that they play along.
Click HERE for more stories from An Adventure in El Salvador.
It’s great to see this process and appreciate all the hard work that goes into our delucious coffee. I’ll remember it daily!