Plainspoken Coffee. A Coffee Review for Ordinary People by Ordinary People, #25.
We enjoy reviewing coffees from El Salvador, a country which has lost over 90% of its native forest cover, with 80% of its remaining tree cover represented by shade-grown coffee. Be sure to check our previous backgrounder on El Salvador coffees, which includes several reviews and the importance of the country to birds, with a number of links. Our latest tasting from El Salvador is Allegro Coffee Roasters Santa Adelaida.
Santa Adelaida cooperative is located south of San Salvador, in the Balsamo mountains near the San Salvador volcano, at an altitude of about 1200 meters. Nearly all the 500 members grow the bourbon variety on approximately 650 hectares.
In 2003, Allegro chose Santa Adelaida as one of their High 5 recipients. The High 5 For Farmers program provides support directly to the farms where the organic coffee is produced by providing $10,000 to growers to complete much needed community based projects in education, health care, agricultural programs and farm development. The 2003 project helped the co-op recover from hurricane damage.
The coffee is Rainforest Alliance certified and certified organic, and can be purchased at Whole Foods Markets. It was a light roast, and provided a snappy, juicy start, followed by medium-bodied sweetness. Tasters detected hints of maple candy and caramel. It had a really nice, creamy mouthfeel and a lingering finish. It was a classic Central American, with just enough 
nuances to be considered a bit more interesting than many others from similar origins and making it our favorite El Salvador to date! 3.75 motmots.
See also Coffee Review’s 2003 review, when it scored 88 points.
Revised on November 14, 2019