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Overview

In 1865, Carlos Manuel Garcia Prieto arrived from Spain to El Salvador with unquenchable desire for producing coffee that excels from the rest. After more than a hundred years, the great grandson of Don Carlos, Don Raul Garcia Prieto Urrutia remains dedicated to producing a coffee with exquisite flavor and aroma, eddy, which is not only the finest in the region, but also all that his ancestors guaranteed it would be.
Altamira is located at El Salvador ’s Golden Belt, a region known as the Apaneca-Ilamatepec Mountain Range This belt brings together the best conditions for producing a coffee of exceptional aroma and smoothness. Altamira is grown at an ideal altitude (from 1,300 to 1,600 meters above sea level) in an area of abundant rainfall. Endowed with rich volcanic soil, which is of a fine, organic, sandy texture and contains an abundance of phosphorous and potassium, contributing to our coffee’s unrivaled excellence.
Its coffee trees are caressed by a moderate and constant breeze, bathed by a warm sun during the day, and surrounded by a fresh mist in the evening. Each of these factors helps to create a micro-climate of insuperable conditions; its neighbor’s farms have also won this prize.
The heirloom Bourbón coffee trees feed on the thick, dark volcanic soil along the skirts of the Volcano of Santa Ana. They are protected from wind by what we call “curtains” of shade trees that are also home to thousands of migratory birds. The Garcia Prieto family supervises the quality of our coffee from the tree to the bag. The tree’s nutrition is naturally of vital importance to them; their special fertilizing program produces coffee with the characteristics that a connoisseur demands. The cherries are chosen for their perfect ripeness: they are of a crimson color and have abundant honey, an ideal size, and fully developed flavor.
The cherries are processed right at Finca Altamira, we first remove the pulp from the cherry without water just with the grain juice, then the grain’s process of washing is rigorous: only fresh water is used, without re-use, in order not to alter the grain’s quality we use this non-traditional washing process for our coffee cherries, which uses up to 200 times less water than the enzyme method (letting it sit in large water containers for fermentation); it is called the De-Mucilage method, it’s a modern demucilageinating machines and uses the centrifugal force of a large cylinder to remove by friction the mucilage by rubbing the beans against one another, adding a very little water to remove the mucilage and keep the beans cool, the mucilage with all it’s nutrient’s is incorporated to the peel which we use it as fertilizer, the coffee acquires a special semi-washed taste.
The Pre- drying of the grain takes place at the Finca in “Pariguelas”, the coffee never touch the ground, with sun and fresh air first for 7 days and then it is normally transported to the coffee to Cooperativa Cuzcachapa for drying in clay patios. It is gradual, without abrupt alterations; the grains are moved carefully by hand so that the drying will be slow, constant and uniform.
Every year, billions of birds use Central America as a bridge on their way South and North. Finca Altamira is one of the few committed coffee plantations that never compromised their bean’s quality. On any given afternoon in September, our shade trees rustle with the movement of birds; their calls can be heard from any point on the mountain. On a 20 minute walk through the paths, you can discover up to 55 varieties of birds such as **Golden-Olive Woodpecker, Altamira Oriole, Townsend’s Warbler, Canada Warbler, Clay-Colored Robin, Black and White Warble, and many others In the midst of the bustle of coffee—picking, one never forgets that Altamira is not just a farm: it is a habitat. This was discover in the year 2000 by Dr. Oliver Komar as part of SIMBIOSIS lived for 2 month in our farm studying bird migration for his PhD thesis at the Kansas University.

Other Statistics:

Coffee varieties: Bourbón & Pacamara
Type of Shade: Pepeto, copalchi, mango, capulin, avocado.
Average Annual Rainfall: 3,300 mm
Average Temperature: 17º C
Type of Soil: Sandy loam
Annual Production: (60kg) 800 bags
Mill and company where lot was process: Beneficio Altamira.

GPS Coordinates:

Latitude: N 13° 51’ 12’’
Longitude: W 89° 40’ 8’’