Coffee first arrived on the soils of El Salvador in the late 1800sand quickly became an important export for the small but mighty country. By the mid-1900s, El Salvador was the 4th leading producer of coffee. However, the civil war outbreak from1979-1992 led to a severe decrease in coffee production. Post-war, the large coffee estates were broken up and dispersed to smallholder producers–which is why today, 95% of El Salvador’s coffee is grown on farms less than 20 hectares in size.

The Apaneca-Ilamatepec region is a beautiful expanse of volcanoes, swathes of forests, protected wilderness, and coffee farms. The soils are rich with volcanic material and the numerous ecosystems house a diverse array of flora and fauna–a truly ideal place to grow coffee. This pristine region is home to Finca Palin, the third-generation coffee farm owned and managed by Carolina Padilla, outside of the town of Tacuba.

The farm was first acquired in the early 1900s and was passed down from generation to generation. Carolina’s father passed away in 2010, and she has delved deep into the world of coffee–utilizing both her family’s traditional practices in addition to newer modern processing methods. The coffee trees are surrounded by citrus trees such as limes and oranges, and teak trees for wood, helping promote higher quality coffee production whilst also diversifying income. Half of the farm is a tropical dry forest, housing bio diverse ecosystems.

The town of Tacuba is a hotspot for protected wilderness, with the nearby Impossible National Forest Reserve expanding across 1,450 hectares. The farm is also working on more sustainable agricultural methods such as cultivating red worms to create humic acid, contributing to the production of a more natural fertilizer for the coffee. Habitats for a specific bee species are also protected to combat the spread of the Coffee Berry Borer. These sustainable methods are essential, especially considering the looming threat of climate change and the risk of droughts and floods.

After the outbreak of Coffee Leaf Rust in 2012 and the lower coffee prices, malnutrition was the second highest in the country for Tacuba. Finca Palin sought to ensure jobs were maintained for its employees during this hard time, and continue to do so. During the harvest, the cherries are carefully hand-picked and delivered to the mill, Beneficio Rio Zarco, 30km away.

At the mill, the coffee is pulped to remove the exterior fruit and fermented for 10-12 hours. The coffee is then washed in canals of water to remove any remaining mucilage and foreign material. The freshly cleaned beans are then evenly dispersed on clay patios to dry until the ideal moisture content is reached. Clay is used in this region to dry coffee because it enables an even distribution of heat to ensure a more stable drying process. Once complete, the coffee is moved to the dry mill to be hulled and prepared for export.