El Salvador

There’s different types of coffee farmers:

There are farmers that have a small piece of land and just grow their cherries and sell them. There are farmers that have a very big farm and drive a hummer. There are farmers that grow exotic varieties, do their own processing and try to produce amazing coffee. There are farmers that have a beautiful resort, where they also grow coffee. There are farmers that grow coffee among other crops, just to provide for their families. There are farmers that have a coffee farm mainly out of pure passion.

And then there is Rodolfo, owner of Finca El Salvador (FES) and fifth generation coffee farmer. Rodolfo is unlike any other coffee farmer I’ve ever seen. He’s a man of many talents, dreamer and realist at the same time. Lived in Berlin, speaks Italian and dresses like he’s going to a natural wine bar, which he probably is. 

Rodolfo inherited his family's farm which I think he sees as a blessing and burden at the same time. He wants to make something good out of his farm and the area around him, but he is surrounded by abandoned farms that make him wonder why he is still there, and not in Europe, which seems to suit him better than El Salvador. He’s always talking about starting new companies, because he doesn’t want to be dependent on his farm. (we almost got into the gelato-business with him) But it’s clear he still has a lot of love for Finca El Salvador. And it shows, his coffees are super interesting, and he’s always experimenting to make them better. 

Take this Borbonera for example, the cherries come from 60 year old trees that still have a good yield and produce amazingly complex and sweet coffee with notes of dark chocolate, raisin and cherry. Add a layer of funkyness to that from the 48 hours of fermentation in cherry, and you’ll get a coffee that always reminds me of rum raisin icecream. Or maybe if you’ve had a rough week it just tastes like you have rum in your coffee.

Notes: Dark chocolate, raisin, cherry