Finca Santa Barbara, Apaneca-Ilamatepec, El Salvador Brown Coffee Company has been doing its best to represent the beautiful coffees produced by the Miguel Menendez family for twelve years. To say they’re like family is a gross understatement. To say we get excited when new crop coffees arrive from them is putting it mildly. Finca Santa Barbara is one of Don Miguel’s premiere farms. In the last few years its quality has shot up after he finally acquired the remaining jigsaw puzzle portions of it from his late brother’s estate. Don Miguel quickly incorporated these semi-abandoned plots into the contiguous fabric of hillside plots he himself has been taking care of for over a quarter century and gave his brother’s land the name “Santa Barbara,” joining it with his own neighboring/surrounding farm of the same name. It’s now one. And yet, this portion of Santa Barbara is special. Orange Bourbon, Pacamara and other varieties thrive in the volcanic soil of Cerro Las Ranas. We have a small quantity of washed Orange Bourbon this year that is typical of the “wow factor” I always get when I cup these coffees in El Salvador: zippy with an orange creamsicle dipped in cocoa. The orange-like juiciness I always taste isn’t related to the color this Bourbon sub-variety displays when ripe, but gosh isn’t it suggestive of it…and perfect!