Rodolfo Ruffatti

Get to know this coffee in detail

Rodolfo Ruffatti runs the family estate that his great-grandfather acquired in 1934 upon his arrival from Turin, Italy.

The coffee trees grow in the shade, and the highest altitude is reserved for these more special lots. The farm has focused on specialty coffee production for years, slowly adding exotic varieties such as Pink Bourbon, SL28, Rume Sudan, Pacamara, and 74110 from Ethiopia. Ruffatti and his team are responsible for processing.

For this natural batch, the ripe cherries are sorted before being moved to African beds where they are left to dry.

With this direct-deal lot, we seek to strengthen our relationship with Rodolfo in El Salvador for another year and ensure the continuity of his exclusive lots in the future.

Meet the producer

The origins of Finca El Salvador

FES (Finca el Salvador) is a family farm located on the north face of Cerro El Águila in the Ahuachapan/Apaneca-Llamatepec mountain range of El Salvador. The farm was established in the 1920s and purchased in 1934 by Italian Rodolfo Ruffatti Riso from Turin, Italy, who had just arrived in El Salvador to start a new life.

Since then, the farm has belonged to the Ruffatti family, and in 2020, his grandson, also Rodolfo Ruffatti, who has been a key player in managing the family business for years, took over, replacing his father.

Location and planting

The farm is located at an altitude of approximately 1,450 to 1,640 meters above sea level. It has a production area of ​​over 70 hectares, and another 20 hectares of wild forest, with an annual production of over 500 69-kg bags. The farm has focused on specialty coffee production for years and in recent years has slowly shifted to exotic varieties such as Pink Bourbon from Huila, Kenia from El Salvador, SL28, Rume Sudan, Pacamara, and 74110 from Ethiopia.

To achieve this transition, they are planting the lower elevations of the farm with Tabi, Portillo, and Caturra varieties, intended for volume production and large lots, while reserving the higher elevations of the farm (1,500 m or more) for more exotic varieties. The farm also has tropical hardwood trees that provide shade for the coffee plants.

The El Salvador Farm today

Finca El Salvador, FES, employs 30 people year-round. “A farming family lives on the farm, and now that I'm taking over, I'm preparing a plan to open a daycare center for coffee-growing children, so workers can leave their children when they come to work,” says Rodolfo, who is very excited to have taken over the farm. “Next year's cupping scores will reflect my work this year.”

The main challenges on the farm, Rodolfo tells us, are the lack of access to low-interest loans, extortion by criminal gangs, and the general crime situation in El Salvador.

Coffee processing at FES

All coffee processing is done by the Productor Coffee team, also led by Rodolfo, at the Juayua processing plant, which the team founded to process coffees from their own farms, but also from neighboring farms in western El Salvador.
For this natural batch, the ripe cherries are sorted before being transferred to African beds where they are allowed to dry until they reach the ideal moisture level.

FES and Ineffable Coffee

At Ineffable Coffee, we're thrilled to offer this direct-deal batch. We hope to strengthen our relationship with Rodolfo and support him in his journey as head of Finca El Salvador (FES) in the coming years.