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.
Jose Efrain Diaz owns the 2.5-manzana farm Finca machuca, where he grows around 7,500 coffee trees, some Pacas and some Pacamara variety. He also grows some avocado, lemon, and oranges on the farm. He produces Washed coffees by picking the ripe cherries, depulping them, alloweing them to ferment dry for about 12 hours, then washing and spreading them on raised beds for about 15–18 days to dry.
Finca Machuca produces about 70 quintales per year, and the farm is remote and difficult to access: Heavy rains can wash out the roads and make traveling to and from the farm very hard. Still, Jose is expanding his property, and would love for coffee roasters to visit him: It is inspiring to him to grow and sell specialty coffee, and he looks forward to doing more.
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.
