From the Salaverria family's original farm in El Salvador, this black honey processed coffee is dried slowly on raised beds over three to four weeks, keeping almost all of the fruit's natural sugars intact. The result is something rich and fruit-forward with a rounded sweetness - a coffee that Copper's Matt visited at source in 2023 and has clearly not stopped thinking about since.
Slow-dried, fruit-rich El Salvador sweetness
Black honey processing sits somewhere between washed and natural, and Los Nogales does it with unusual care. After picking at full ripeness, the cherry is depulped only very loosely - removing around 1% of mucilage - so almost all of those fruit sugars stay wrapped around the bean. The coffee is then loaded into jute bags for transport to the drying tables, which keeps the mucilage intact in a way that water channels simply wouldn't allow. From there, the beans rest in shade for two days with minimal turning before moving into full sunlight on raised beds, where they dry slowly over three to four weeks depending on the weather. That unhurried process is what gives this coffee its character: rich and fruit-forward, with the kind of sweetness that comes from patience rather than intervention.
Los Nogales is the original farm of the Salaverria family - where Jose Antonio Salaverria grew up - and it still carries that sense of personal investment. Matt from Copper visited in March 2023 and it clearly left an impression. This is a coffee that works well across brew methods, rewarding a little attention without demanding it.
About the Roaster
Copper Coffee Roasters started in 2019 in a small Richmond office, where a recruitment business and a growing obsession with great coffee shared the same desk space. That obsession has since grown into a roastery in Cobham, Surrey, three coffee shops across south-west London and Surrey, and a range built around helping people find their way into speciality coffee without the fuss.
