Farm: Finca Himalaya - Divisadero Coffee
Producer: Mauricio Salaverria/Project Origin
Region: Apaneca Ataco, Ahuachapan
Variety: Geisha
Process: Natural
Altitude: 1500 - 1600 masl
Harvested: 2024
CUPPING NOTES: Yellow fruits, tropical like mango and pineapple. Very creamy with molasses sweetness. Balanced and juicy.
Transparency.
What we paid:
-Coffee: 25€/Kg
-Shipping: 2€/Kg
-Packaging: 1.50€/bag
Quantity bought: 35 Kg
Project Origin
Project Origin is a green coffee sourcing company founded by Sasa Sestic, the 2015 World Barista Champion. Known as "The Coffee Man," Sasa has been a transformative figure in the coffee industry, driven by a passion for quality, sustainability, and creating meaningful connections between producers and consumers.
Through Project Origin, Sasa focuses on direct trade relationships, ensuring producers are paid well above market prices. The company works closely with farmers in over 18 countries, helping improve farming practices, experiment with coffee processing, and achieve sustainability goals. Their Project Origin Community Fund supports initiatives like better infrastructure, education, and healthcare in coffee-producing communities.
For Sasa, coffee is about more than just exceptional flavor—it’s about making a positive impact on the people and environments that create it. Project Origin embodies this ethos, bridging the gap between passionate producers and appreciative coffee lovers worldwide.
We’re thrilled to bring you something truly special: a collaboration between Project Origin and Mauricio Salaverría from Finca Himalaya in El Salvador.
Mauricio Salaverria
The relationship between Mauricio and Project Origin began in 2011 when Mauricio met Project Origin founder, Saša Šestić. At the time, Mauricio was in Brazil exploring natural coffee processing methods, while Saša was on his first-ever origin trip. Just a few months later, Saša visited Mauricio’s farms in El Salvador, marking the start of a long-standing collaboration.Since then, Mauricio and Project Origin have worked closely on experimental processing techniques, as well as classic natural and semi-washed coffees, spanning a wide range of varietals.
Mauricio operates five different farms in the regions of Ataco and Apaneca, including Cruz Gorda, Finca Himalaya, Villa Galicia and Tablon Divisadero. Each of these farms utilises the natural landscape and unique micro-climates to produce high-quality lots.
Most of Mauricio’s coffee grows under shade, and he also has a multi-layered drying area, so coffees can be dried on the top layer in full sun or on the lower layer under shade to slow the drying time. Mauricio is known for taking great care through all steps of production. Each lot from his farm is tracked by harvest date and his processing facilities are immaculate. He is driven by a desire to take good care of the local environment, using rainwater for his washed process coffee, and reusing the skin of the coffee cherries after they’re pulped to produce a delicious cascara tea.
Finca Himalaya.
Located on soft, volcanic clay within the Apaneca Mountains of El Salvador, Finca Himalaya cultivates much of their coffee under shade grown conditions. Mauricio and his team use cypress and pine trees to provide a habitat for bees, rabbits, butterflies and a wide variety of birdlife. They use African drying beds, partly shaded from the wind, to slowly dry the coffee and ensure an even and controlled drying process. Coffee has been grown on the farm since 1875, and it has a reputation within El Salvador for being the first ‘specialty coffee farm’ in the country.
As if that reputation wasn’t enough, Finca Himalaya was also the birthplace of Project Origin’s Supernatural processing, and where they created Supersonic coffee with Mauricio back in 2014.
