I’ve sat down with a cup of coffee numerous times over the past month with the goal of writing this blog post; but each time I would find myself with both an empty cup and a blank page. If I’m being honest – the truth is – how can I attempt to summarize a week as enlightening as the one I experienced during the first part of February? You see, as a coffee professional on the latter side of the preparation chain (roasting and brewing), getting the chance to travel to an origin country and experience a portion of the harvest season in the midst of brilliant innovators of specialty coffee is almost as good as it gets. The build-up to such an experience can be equated to an 8yr old preparing to go to Disney World for the first time (the only difference is my hosts didn’t let me down near as much as Mickey did twenty years ago). I have come to the conclusion, like most treasured experiences; my trip to El Salvador cannot be done justice from a few words or pictures. However, the only thing more tragic than you as a reader receiving a rough account from me of what MadCap is doing in El Salvador is to not give a glimpse at all…So I guess I ought to start writing!

Luis, Ryan, Gloria and Rachel at El Porvenir

The bulk of our time was spent with Gloria, Maria-Jose, Luis and Jose-Maria. I traveled with my wife (and co-worker), Rachel, and for a good part of the trip we were also with Sharke form De La Paz in San Francisco. MadCap first got connected with the Rodriguez family when we purchased coffee from Gloria’s Cup of Excellence winning lot, El Porvenir, in the summer of 2008. Since then, I’ve been in contact with Maria-Jose (Gloria’s daughter) periodically, and she graciously extended the offer to host us anytime. More recently, I’ve been in constant communication with Luis, Maria-Jose’s husband. Unfortunately my personal communication with Gloria has been limited due to my extreme pre-elementary Spanish skills. Gloria is a third generation coffee farmer who started really investing in her quality over the past decade, largely due to the influence of the Cup of Excellence program. Gloria has 5 small farms- all located in Apaneca- ranging from around 1250-1650 meters above sea level. As you walk into her living room in Apaneca, her dedication to quality is apparent as you see her collection of Cup of Excellence Awards hanging proudly on her wall.

Gloria’s daughter, Maria-Jose got into coffee about 5 years ago when she went along with her mother to receive her first Cup of Excellence honor. Shortly after her mother’s success in COE, Maria-Jose got involved with the Consejo Salvadoreno de Café, which operates as the ambassador for Specialty Coffee in El Salvador. It was at the Consejo that Maria-Jose and Luis met, fell in love, got married and had a beautiful little baby named Jose-Maria. Luis and Maria-Jose left the Consejo in 2009 and purchased their own small farm which they named “La Gloria” in Apaneca. Although there is a lot of work to be done at “La Gloria”- and coffee takes patience- it’s exciting to see the already amazing crop knowing that it will keep improving in the years to come. Luis, although having no past farming experience, worked at the Consejo for 11years and understands El Salvador coffee inside and out. So, from here, Luis and Maria-Jose are working together to develop La Gloria, continuing to develop the already great product of Gloria’s 5 farms and also working as consultants to connect roasters to other quality farms. I’m really excited to see the fruition of a long family history of coffee farming merging with a fresh and well-studied look at quality initiatives with the involvement of both Maria-Jose and Luis. This dream team set of farms seems hard to beat.

Beautiful selection of ripe coffee cherries!

In our time together the Rodriguez family led us through all of the farms, the mills, shared the future plans, and the current struggles. We had the experience of picking coffee, cupping coffee; plotting out future partnerships and so much more. Don’t worry, the trip wasn’t only work! We also enjoyed going out for meals, discussing various topics and just goofing around. One of the most exciting aspects was being in the company of great people. I can’t even begin to count the number of Supremos (the local pilsner beer) we drank together each day around such great conversation, but with each day (and each Supremo) the synergy kept growing and the excitement of knowing that MadCap is partnering with awesome people that are producing an awesome product was apparent. The cupping table was insane. I won’t tell you too much, but I tasted some lovely coffees (there may have even been a coffee that scored a 93+ ).

For about a day and a half Rachel and I had the privilege of spending time with Aida Batle at the JHill Mill in Santa Ana. Aida has one of the hottest specialty coffee producing reputations in the world and has definitely earned it. One of the biggest distinctions in her coffees is that she watches every step of the process extremely carefully, assuring zero defects in her coffee. She recently has gained attention for producing cascara. Cascara is essentially the dried cherry part of the fruit. It can be steeped like tea to make a delicious beverage. She was also the first person to point out to me that if you know what you’re doing with natural processed coffee, you aren’t going to screw it up…it’s just going to be a lot of work. Now that Aida’s coffee has been sold out since 2003, she works with a couple of larger farms implementing the same intensive standards that she has with her coffees. During our cupping at JHill, this attention to processing was very apparent by the cleanliness and uniformity of the coffees we tasted. The highlight on the cupping table was experiencing the same coffee processed 3 different ways: natural, pulped natural and washed. The mill recently acquired a La Marzocco GS3, so I had the chance to pull some shots and do a short tutorial with some of the staff at the mill. After spending a week being wowed by the achievements and knowledge of so many professionals at the farm level it was fun to return a similar wow by pulling espresso and pouring latte art. In the future I think I’d really enjoy the chance to do trainings in coffee growing locations. With so many roasters and baristas getting the chance to be involved and educated on the growing side it would be wicked sweet to see more producers learning how to pull shots and make a cappuccino.

Welp, I’ve written over a thousand words, and I’ve barely tipped the surface. This is your glance- I hope you enjoyed it- and remember, it’s only a glimpse. Keep your eyes open for extraordinary coffee from El Salvador this summer!

For more pics from Ryan’s trip go to our facebook album.

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