It would seem logical that the smallest Central American coffee-growing country would produce microlots, but historically, much of the coffee was blended and sold to mills, without much lot differentiation and separation. The rise of specialty coffee in El Salvador has inspired many producers to start to identify and isolate individual varieties, and to experiment with sorting and processing, as a way of attracting buyers and getting higher prices, but access to those resources can still be difficult for smaller growers.
For the past few years, Café Imports green buyer Piero Cristiani—who is from El Salvador, and whose mother has a long history in coffee there—has embarked on a project designed to identify, reward, and bring to market the exceptional results of the hard, innovative work that producers are increasingly interested in doing here.
Focusing on the region of Chalatenango, Piero has partnered with a cupper and a local mill to buy small, select microlots from producers—some separated by variety, some by process, and some by both. We are buying the coffee in parchment and doing the ruling and final sorting and bagging ourselves, which allows for more quality control as well as the ability to package some of these very special small lots in custom 35-kilo Pequeños bags, to create more widespread access to these coffees to roasters.
All 15 manzanas of Finca Montañita are planted with coffee plants, about 3,000 plants per manzana: Farm owner Antonio René Aguilar grows a combination of Pacamara, Pacas, Bourbon, and Gesha, as well as lemon and orange trees. He processes his coffees as Washed and Honeys: The Washed coffees are picked and depulped, fermented dry for 15–22 hours, and then washed and dried on patios for 8–14 days. The Honeys are dried on raised beds after depulping, for 8–14 days as well.
"All my life, I've dedicated myself to coffee," he says, and he has been able to grow the size of his farm and production over the years. He produces between 200–250 quintales per year, and is glad to have coffee as a way to provide opportunities and employment to his family and to the workers on his farm; it pushes him to want to grow and sell more high-quality coffee.
We are proud to offer these micro-microlots, and can’t wait for you and your customers to experience the delicious stuff that comes in these small packages.
For more information about coffee production in El Salvador, visit our El Salvador Origin Page.
