El Limo
EL SALVADOR
3rd generation coffee producer, José Enrique Gutierrez has returned to his family tradition of growing coffee after more than a 20-year break. In his re-launched business, señor Gutierrez skillfully blends his ancestors’ traditions with modern agricultural best practices, so it’s no wonder that by now he owns several successful high-quality plantations and producing such amazing coffees like this extremely sweet, natural Yellow Icatu.
José Enrique Gutierrez's farm named El Limo is located in the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range in the western part of El Salvador, at 1,200 meters above sea level. José rebuilds all his plantations from scratch, replaces old coffee trees prone to leaf rust with resistant, modern hybrids, and also plants shade-providing trees and other nitrogen-fixing crops. In our case, the selectively harvested Yellow Icatu cherries are sorted by hand and then placed in hermetically sealed bags for 68-72 hours. After the anaerobic fermentation process is finished, the cherries are spread on raised beds and slowly dried in the sun for 30-32 days. Fun fact: Yellow Icatu is a hybrid created from a natural cross between Red Icatu and Yellow Bourbon. Red Icatu is carrying robusta genes so is the Yellow Icatu. We don’t think anyone would guess that by tasting El Limo in a blind test!