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.
Finca La Benedición took 2nd place in the 2015 El Salvador Cup of Excellence competition, and the quality shown in the lots from here easily illustrates why it placed so high. Producer Ismael Flores grows mostly Pacamara, Bourbon, and Pacas on the 5 manzanas of Finca La Benedición, and he processes his coffees as Washed and Honeys, paying meticulous attention to his processes and displaying his passion for coffee. The Washed coffees are picked, depulped, fermented dry for 14–18 hours, and then dried for 13–20 days on patios. The Honeys are picked, depulped, and dried on raised beds for 13–20 days as well.
While production has been hampered a little by coffee-leaf rust and by weather, Ismael is able to produce up to 130 quintales. Access to and from the farm is difficult, however, and bad weather can limit the use of local roads.
Ismael has been growing and working in coffee for 15 years, and he considers coffee to be a stable source of income for his family, as well as "a nice way to give sustenance that drives us to get ahead." He hopes to find partners who will buy his whole harvest, which will help him to improve the quality and grow his production.
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.
