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.
Ignacio Gutiérrez's farmland has grown considerably since he started growing coffee 10 years ago: He now has 18 manzanas, each planted with about 3,000 trees, mostly Pacas, Pacamara, and SL-28 varieties. He employs different processes: Washed, Honey, and Natural, and he dries his coffee on both patios and on raised beds, depending on the process and the climate. Like many producers in this area, his farm has struggled with a little bit of coffee-leaf rust, but it is getting better.
He says that coffee is a very pleasant way of making a life and livelihood, and he appreciates the opportunity to improve his financial standing through coffee. Of course he'd like to sell more and earn higher prices, and with more farms and more plants he hopes to increase his production every year.
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.
