El Cerro is a farm located on the Apaneca llamatepec mountain range, near the town of Apaneca. The altitude of El Cerro is ideal for producing excellent speciality coffees. It has been in the family of Fernando "Leto" Escobar for 5 generations.

He replaced the old coffee trees, which were struggling to produce, with new varieties adapted to the farm's climate and separated into different sections to guarantee fine traceability.

This natural Pacamara from the El Cerro farm is produced in the shade of trees. They ensure that the coffee trees are well nourished and that the cherries develop as well as possible.

During the harvest period, between December and February, pickers are trained to select only fully ripe cherries. This allows El Cerro and its producer Fernando Leto to offer you the full potential of this coffee.

This taste for perfection can also be found in the process, which is carried out directly on the farm. Here, a natural process. This process is carried out directly on the farm, to ensure total monitoring of production, from planting to export of the coffees 

It's worth noting that, at the time, he had another job as well as working on the farm. Over time, however, coffee became a passion for him, and in 2016 he decided to devote himself 100% to El Cerro.

Now a Q-Grader, he later set up his own washing station to process his coffees before exporting them. Today, thanks to his work, El Cerro is a renowned farm in El Salvador, and Fernando 'Leto' Escobar a respected producer.

12 people work at El Cerro all year round. At harvest time, around thirty seasonal workers join them to pick the cherries by hand and process them at the El Cerro wetmill.

Although the entire farm is dedicated to coffee production, it is surrounded by a dense forest with a rich biodiversity. The coffee trees grow under the shade of indigenous trees
that were there long before the farm was built.

This forest provides plenty of moisture and nutrients to the soil, generating compost whose nutrients are carried to the foot of the coffee trees by the rain.

• Kenya: This is a variety of SL 28, one of Fernando's favourite coffees. What does he like about it? The mouthfeel, the creaminess of the cup, its acidity and, above all, the fruit notes when this coffee is processed in its natural state.
• Pacas: This variety is closely linked to the history of El Cerro, as Fernando's great-grandfather was one of the first to develop the variety in El Salvador. Even though it's not the most resistant variety, Fernando is very attached to it!
• Bourbon: The star variety in El Salvador, after Pacamara. For Fernando, it's the perfect variety for chocolatey coffees.
• Anacafé: the most recent variety grown by Fernando, naturally highly resistant to rust and very productive. In terms of cup profile, Anacafé has lovely citric acidity and body. It's a very pleasant coffee to drink, a hybrid that's as good for the grower as it is for the consumer! Especially in the natural process, which brings a lot of fruit to the cup.
• Washed: After picking, the cherries are placed in a flotation tank to remove the least dense berries. The selected berries are pulped and then sieved. The mucilage is removed by a special machine, which allows Fernando to use less water to wash the coffee afterwards. After washing, the coffee is placed on drying beds to dry for 15 to 20 days in the sun.
• Semi-washed: a relatively simple process, between a wash and a honey, allowing the development of certain characteristics in the coffee. The coffee is left to rest for 24 hours with its husk, then it is pulped and passed through a mechanical washer, which is adjusted with a very limited use of water leaving part of the musilage in the coffee, which gives a rounded body and develops sweetness and fruity notes, but allows enjoying the clarity of the citric notes.
• Honey: For his honey process, Fernando does not sort his cherries by flotation after they have been pulped. Why does he do this? Because water attacks the mucilage in the cherries. The cherries are pulped and placed directly on the drying beds, for varying lengths of time, to obtain different types of honey, yellow, red or black.
• Natural: After sorting the best cherries from the harvest, Fernando Escobar leaves them to dry for between 30 and 40 days, depending on the moisture content. To ensure that the berries absorb as much mucilage as possible, he plays with the thickness of the cherry bed and alternates between sun and shade, to get the maximum amount of fruit in the cup.
• Natural Anaerobic: The cherries are dried in an airtight container, either dry or filled with water and juice from other coffee fermentations. However, Fernando traditionally carries out his process dry, and places his containers in a dedicated area, entirely in the dark, at a stable temperature of around 15°C.