Jose Armando Portillo has been in coffee all his life—in fact, he describes his family as having coffee in their blood. Not only does he grow coffee for export, he also roasts some coffee for the local market.
Don Jose's farm, El Naranjo, is a 12-manzana plot on which he grows Pacas and Pacamara varieties. His coffee is hand-picked ripe at the height of the season, depupled in the afternoon, and fermented for about eight hours before being washed and laid to dry on concrete patios. The drying time is about eight days.
In 2003, Don Jose earned third place in the CoE competition.
For more information on Salvadoran coffee, visit our El Savador origin page.
