FRESH CROP!! El Salvador Lagunitas

Additional information about this amazing coffee:

This lot of coffee is from our friend Alejandro Valiente of Metapan El Salvador. He is a fourth-generation coffee producer and a kind and forward-thinking person. I met Alejandro over ten years ago when I was the green coffee buyer for a San Francisco-based roasting company, and I knew I'd found a friend. I am beyond delighted to continue working with him this many years later. He owns a mill in Metapan called Cafenor, which is a carbon-neutral mill in the area. This particular lot is of the Pacamara variety, dried on raised beds, and is a blend of 9 different producers. This coffee is deliciously sweet but has a very big presence in the cup. The Pacamara variety is usually on the more savory side, but this coffee is actually just a sweetness bomb (which is why we fell in love with it).

Cafenor's vision is, in Alejandro's words, "Our vision is to create a sustainable business through an innovation process, build long-term relations between producers and roasters, and achieve traceability and transparency. This is based on four philosophical principles. First, to have the ability to harmonize differences. Second, to respect different opinions. Third, to be humble and listen to the advice and knowledge of earlier generations. And fourth, to avoid actions that have negative impacts on other ecosystems. Regarding the actions we take toward our objectives, we built a small mill in the mountains, close to the coffee farms. Specifically, in the Alotepec-Metapan range. This helps us cut our carbon footprint during coffee transportation. We installed solar panels for 100% self-sufficiency and coffee drying beds in the shade. We are surrounded by a pine forest, so we studied its carbon dioxide fixing capacity, and converted our project into a carbon insetting operation. Our closeness with producers and permanent, honest communication allows us to share management techniques, fertilization, disease control, and varieties and to renew our farms. Additionally, we agreed with all these producers not to use herbicides or pesticides for weed and disease control. We also agreed to use a new technology for treating waste from coffee processing. This brings us new challenges. This is why we are developing a sustainability project. This project aims to convert our waste into raw materials to make bio-gas and bio-fertilizers. We also plan to build a lab for biological production to prevent pests."