El Salvador’s history with coffee goes a long way. For a long time, coffee was El Salvador’s largest export - making up 90% of the country’s exports during the early 1900s. This changed in the 1970s after the breakout of a civil war; but the country regained its stability and its contemporary status as an origin country is one of prestige and quality.
El Salvador is the smallest of the Central American nations, producing 546,000 sacks annually. But with homegrown varieties like Pacas and Pacamara, their coffees are always in high demand - aided by the fact high quality farming has a prevalence in the country.
Bringing in the new era of coffees was a priority for the El Salvadoran government, and in 2015 the Salvadoran Coffee Council produced a five-year plan to bolster the position of Salvadoran coffees to the international market. It worked.
The coffees we pick from El Salvador are always an incredible cup, we love the lots that are full of boozy funkiness and stone fruits.
2021 - 2022
FES KENYA
NOTES: caramel, molasses, stewed plum jam
VARIETY: Kenya
REGION: Cerro Al Aguila
ALTITUDE: 1500 - 1670 masl
PROCESS: 48hr cherry maceration
PRODUCER: Rodolfo Ruffatti
HARVEST: 2020 - 2021
A last coffee for this harvest from Finca El Salvador again, but this one is a little special, it’s a small lot from the ‘Kenya’ variety that Rodolfo propagated and grew on his farm on the slopes of the Cerro el aguila mountain, in Apaneca-Ilamatepec. Story has it that this variety was brought back from a hunting trip in Kenya and was grown but later abandoned only to be rescued again.You may remember the Kenya variety from Divina coffee farm, which is not far from Finca El Salvador. On a trip around the mountain top looking for coffees to process, Rodolfo found Divina and ended up doing his second ever natural process with this variety. Rodolfo collected some seeds and planted them in 2014 on Finca El Salvador. It is only growing at higher elevations on the farm and he is separating the cherry manually and using a natural process with the trusty 48hr cherry maceration. In the cup is sweet milk chocolate but with a bright and complex ‘kenyan’ acidity!