A small country, producer of great coffees
A small country that produces great coffees
El Salvador was the last destination in Central America on our trip to the coffee producing countries in which we work. We arrived in the country the second week of March, with a short flight from Nicaragua, we told you about our trip to this country in this post. this previous previous post. El Salvador is the smallest country in Central America, but perhaps the most successful and advanced of all the countries where we produce, process and study Flavour profiles of Green coffee. Here we work with two partners: Alimsa and Jasal.
The trip began with a visit to the Farm Villa España, located in Concepción de Ataco, where we shared time with the Mena Brothers – Victor, Alfredo and Jorge – who represent the fifth generation of coffee growers in the family. They are working on rebuilding and adapting the Cultivation and Beneficio according to current market needs and trends.
The coffees of the Mena Brothers are well known by our roasters: in our Range Terras: Saturninus and the microlots of our Range Constellations corresponding to the Sulafat Star. The cleanliness, sweetness and diversity of the batches from the Farm Villa España are growing year after year, this Harvest we made 12 microlots in total of which 10 of them exceeded the score of 87 in the SCA protocol.
The confidence in the quality of the coffees, the consistency of the product and the years of work with the Mena Brothers, allow us to continue advancing in our project and to take a very important step forward. together with Jorge and Alfredo we organized a visit to the Coffee Farm Villa España and a 3 hour talk with the high school students of the city of Ataco.
We started the visit from the greenhouse, where we talked about seedlings of several Arabica varieties, then we moved to the mill where we talked about the different processing methods and their characteristics. We ended the talk by tasting coffees from the Natural and Washed processes, discussing the learning and development opportunities in numerous areas related to coffee: agriculture, logistics, economics, IT, service, etc.
This meeting was the beginning of a new stage in our project, a very interesting part as these young people will have a series of meetings and activities scheduled throughout the year at the Farm Villa España and in the wet and dry mills. Next year, when we return to El Salvador, we will meet again and take another step in the construction of a coffee community in Ataco.
Our next visit was to the Santa Cruz de Jasal Mill, owned by the Salaverria family. We have been working and developing our project with Andres Salaverría for five years, making new experiments in the Coffee process every year, improving our avant-garde recipes and increasing volumes.
Two years ago we launched a new coffee: Liquidambar, a coffee from our Range Terras, the production of this batch of coffee has grown to 19 tons this year, we will have a full container of coffee!
Dossokam is also one of the coffees of our Range Terras produced by Andres Salaverria and his team, last year was the first year it was produced and for this year we have managed to produce 15 tons, maintaining its Flavour Profile and its high score of 87 SCA.
The star that gives its name to Andrés Salaverria’s coffees is Vega. This year, together with the Producer and his team, we have prepared 14 microlots, none of them has been rated below 87 points. Fabulous results!
During the 2 days we spent in the company of Andres’ team, we not only worked on the current crop, but also started working on the 2024 crop. We are working on the next stage of process industrialization and more detailed data control, which will allow us in the future not only to produce delicious coffees, but also to better control their flavor profiles. 
Speaking of product, this year you will find more than 50,000 kg of very interesting batches, 100% made according to our avant-garde recipes, with a great diversity of varieties and Flavour profiles. I doubt if there is a roaster in Europe who would not fall in love with at least one of our coffees from El Salvador!
The trip to El Salvador ended with a visit to the Producer Roaster Forum (PRF), an event held each year in a green coffee producing country that brings together coffee growers, roasters and other coffee industry professionals. In two days and in the company of Andrés Salaverría and the Mena Brothers, we attended more than ten different presentations, listened to colleagues from different parts of the world and shared time with them.
It was an interesting experience, we received unequivocal confirmation that we are going in the right direction, keeping up with modern trends, in many aspects coinciding with colleagues, partners and competitors, but we still have our own identification, style and path.
Soon we will let you know when the first samples of coffees from El Salvador will be ready and we will tell you more.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Timur Dudkin
Mare Terra Coffee
“R&D DIRECTOR.
