The origins of Finca El Salvador
Finca El Salvador, FES, is a family run farm located in the north face of Cerro El Aguila in the Ahuachapan / Apaneca-llamatepec mountain range of El Salvador.
The farm was established in the 1920s and was bought in 1934 by Italian Rodolfo Ruffatti Riso from Torino, who had just landed in El Salvador to start a new life. Since then, the farm has been in the Ruffatti family.
This year 2020, his grandson, also Rodolfo Ruffatti, who has been a key element in running the family business for years now, is taking charge of the farm from his father.
Location and planting style
The farm is located at an altitude range of about 1,450 to 1,640 meters above sea level and it is about 70 hectares, plus 20 hectares of wild forest, with an annual production of 500+ 69kg bags.
The farm has been focused on producing specialty grade coffees for years now and in the last few years they have been slowly changing to more exotic varieties such as Pink Bourbon from Huila, Kenya variety from El Salvador, SL28, Rume Sudan, Pacamara and 74110 from Ethiopia.
In order to achieve this, they are planting the lower elevation parts of the farm with Tabi, Portillo and Caturra varieties, aimed at volume production and large lots, while reserving the higher elevations of the farm (1,500m+) for the more exotic varieties.
The farm is also planted with some tropical hardwood which acts as shade for the coffee trees.
The farm today
Finca El Salvador, FES, provides work for 30 people throughout the year, one family lives on the farm and now that “I’m taking over, I’m designing a plan to set up a children’s nursery for coffee kids, so the workers can drop off their kids and go work” says Rodolfo, who is excited about having taken charge of the farm this year.
“Next year’s cupping scores will reflect my work this year”.
The main challenges in the farm, Rodolfo tells us, are the lack of access to low interest financing, gang extortion and the general crime situation in El Salvador.
Coffee processing
All of the processing is done by the Productor Coffee team also run by Rodolfo at the Juayua processing site which was setup by the team in order to process coffees from their own farms but also other neighboring farms from western El Salvador.
For the Anaerobic lots, the cherries ferment a certain time in anaerobic conditions (without oxygen), promoting flavours and aroma compounds from the skin and the cherries to be absorbed into the bean.
After this, the cherries are left to dry on raised beds for days until achieving the right humidity levels.
This year, the team decided on two versions: a shorter anaerobic fermentation of 48 hours where subtles fruity notes are enhanced and a longer one, 120 hours, with more fermentation notes and intensified flavors.
FES & Ineffable Coffee
At Ineffable Coffee we are uber excited to offer you these two lots of direct trade coffees which are now available through the online shop.
We are looking forward to strengthening our relationship with Rodolfo and supporting him in the coming years in his new adventure.
We have no doubt that his passion for coffee and experimenting with processing methods will lead to more great coffees. So keep an eye out!
