The Las Cruces mill has a reputation for producing exceptional lots of coffee. The expertise they have in processing shows in this beautiful coffee. Everest is produced on farms nestled in the hills of the mountains between Ataco, Juayua, and Sonsonate. These hills are fertile due to the rich volcanic soil, a reminder of their proximity to the Santa Ana volcano, which most recently erupted in 2005.

The majority of this coffee is produced by the owner of Las Cruces, Jose Antonio Salaverria. He named this coffee Everest because the farms in this area are interspersed with a forest of pine, cypress, and firs. You can smell the fresh pine aroma in the air all over the mountainsides and see pine-needles on the ground everywhere on the farms. Jose Antonio believes it is very beneficial to let the shade trees “feed” the soil around the coffee plants. The mountains here are also whipped by strong winds from the Pacific Ocean, which encourages the use of tree windbreaks. The shade trees and wind breaks combined make the farms feel like a dense forest.

After the harvest, the coffee is processed at Las Cruces, one of the most modern facilities in El Salvador. The coffee is washed with mechanical washers which greatly reduces the amount of fresh water needed, and then sun dried on concrete patios. The coffee is then sorted no less than three times to remove any defects, before being shipped.