In the Grinder - Our Daily Coffee Weblog

This trip has gone very fast, as they always seem to go. It’s our last day in El Salvador, and we are driving north up to Chalatenango to visit Mr. Raul Ochoa and La Montanas farm. The visit to La Montanas was the original reason that we had planned to come down to El Salvador. Mr. Ochoa’s farm had come in 16th place, then 5th place, then 3rd place, and finally 1st place, and that was a trend and a coffee that we simply could not ignore.

A strange thing happed on the way to the farm, and while this sounds like the beginning of a joke, it is not. About two weeks before our planned visit, straight line winds hit El Salvador (and parts of other areas in Central America, but El Sal took the brunt).

I think that he has 25 trees left out of his entire farm. Completely leafless. Completely beanless. It was like leaves and coffee cherries just disappeared into an alien ship.

(I have not posted these photos yet, but will later this week.)

When I had heard this, I was really kind of numb. There was not loss of life (that I am aware of) or this was not on the scale of Hurricane Stan, or the tsunami that hit Indonesia, but it was very close to home. I kept thinking of Mr. Ochoa, who had sold his coffee in parchment to the local buyers in past years, and then from great land, great climate, and great work had won first place in the Cup of Excellence. The very reason of our trip was to come down and meet Mr. Raul Ochoa and his son, Alexander (not Alejandro) and buy his coffee at a premium way above he’d received before. The fact that out of an estimated 160 69kg bags, he had maybe 7 60 kg bags left, was just amazing.

My initial thought was, “What can we do?” and that we should not go down there.

George said that this was even more reason to go, and that’s what we decided to do!

I contacted Ricardo Espitia of the El Salvadorian coffee council to ask what type of help could we provide. Ricardo had seen the farm and was in shock too. Well, altogether we came up with the idea of providing seed money to get the farm back on its feet, and to make sure that there was enough money to treat the coffee with the special care that it had received in the past to make it that special.

Ah, the coffee, I have not even talked about the coffee yet. The coffee is Pacamara varietal, and it was liquid peach juice, floral and fresh summer berries, with an acidity that is there the whole way, but not even a hint of being overpowering. It was not only the best El Salvadorian that I had cupped, but one of the best coffees that I have cupped.

Okay, back to our plan. Café Imports is “pre-paying” for coffee, be it next year, or three years from now. It’s a sign of good faith, and a cash injection for Mr. Ochoa and his son to have the money for the new inputs to get their farm going again. We wanted to be both the financial seed to get the coffee going, and hopefully the seed of inspiration in a rather tough time for the Ochoas

George auctioned off some of the previous year’s coffee at $100 a pound, and raised over $4,000 at the time that I wrote this, and I believe that there is more money coming.

Mr Ochoa was quiet when we were telling him about our plans, very stoic. Then when it was his turn to speak, he started tearing up as he thanked us. I felt very strange having an older man brought to tears, but you could tell he was honestly touched.

After our visit at his farm, Mr. Ochoa hosted us for lunch, which was honestly the best meal that I had in El Salvador. Vegetable soup of potatoes and green beans, with chicken broth. Arroz, chicken (hen) three ways, baked, fried, and in a cream sauce ginger, fresh fruit for dinner.

Back in the States, we have the seven bags of surviving coffee from Mr. Ochoa. We are going to offer this coffee to last year’s bidders, along with ourselves, and try to raise more money from this limited supply of coffee to help even more.

I have a photo showing new tiny buds sprouting from Mr. Ochoa’s trees, and that is the way that I feel about this whole visit. A bud of new growth starting to reach its way toward the sun.