Oscar Aguila | El Salvador | Filter

About this coffee

Oscar Aguilar owns Finca La Vegona in Chalatenango, El Salvador. This farm contains around 4,500 coffee trees and some citrus trees as well. The coffee is often processed as Honeys and dried on African beds for 16 to 24 days.  The farm faces the common challenge of labor shortages during harvest. Chalatenango, the "valley of water and sand", is El Salvador's coolest and northern-most region. Historically, the country's top coffees have come from western El Salvador. In 2007, though, a Chalatenango pacamara won the Cup of Excellence bringing the region and variety center stage. We purchased that winning coffee, and promptly went to Chalatenango to cup coffees from more producers. Since that time, we've placed a green buyer associate in the region to expand relationships and provide support. From year to year, we've become used to cupping microlots of pacamara, pacas, SL-28, and Gesha, all grown by small producers who apply rigorous harvest and a range of processing techniques. Chalatenango is both special to us, and important to specialty coffee as a whole.