About This Coffee
Carlos Pola comes from a family of coffee farmers. He purchased Finca Las Brisas in 1997 while he was working in the textile industry. By 2012, he transitioned to working in coffee full time. His vision is to produce sustainable specialty coffee by applying his experience in quality control, efficiency and data management from the textile industry to coffee production at both Finca Las Brisas and Finca San Antonio.
The farm has its own lab for experimenting with new processing methods, ensuring quality control and educating farm workers about specialty coffee.
Carlos believes in supporting his community and helping as many farmers as possible embrace specialty coffee. He has channeled his passion for traceability into an application that tracks coffee from the day it is harvested to the shipping lot.
Cultivation
When Carlos dedicated himself to producing coffee full-time in 2012, he renovated the farm to focus on a radically new, sustainable and cost-effective production. Carlos has significantly reduced the farm’s use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers by adopting a specific combination of scientific theory and coffee producers’ know-how. Trees are planted in double rows and shaded by nitrogen-fixing trees. Carlos has even spread specific fungi that have symbiotic relationships with coffee trees, helping them absorb nitrogen and phosphorus more efficiently.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Cherry is selectively handpicked and placed on raised beds to dry under shade for 3 days. Then, cherry is pulped and parchment and remaining mucilage is dried on a raised beds. Parchment is raked frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 15 to 20 days for parchment to dry.
Dried parchment is stored on the farm for several days and then transported to Cooperative La Cuzcachapa in Chalchuapa, Santa Ana to be prepared for export.
In line with his focus on ecologically-sound methods, Carlos only uses honey, natural and controlled fermentation processes to help reduce his farms’ water consumption. Any water used in processing is carefully treated to reduce its environmental impact. Water is anaerobically fermented in sealed tanks where solids are broken down. This nutrient-rich solution is used to spread the fungi that support symbiotic nutrient uptake in coffee trees.
About Pacas
The Pacas family in the Santa Ana region of El Salvador identified the new Pacas variety in 1949. The family has been cultivating coffee in the region for more than 150 years. In the early 1900s, Fernando Alberto Pacas Figueroa, the grandfather of the current owners, planted Maragogype, San Ramon and Bourbon on their farm, Finca San Rafael. The Pacas family identified the new mutation of Pacas and research was conducted by William Cowgill at the University of Florida.
The Salvadoran Institute for Coffee Research (ISIC) further selected for Pacas in the 1960s. Like Caturra and Villa Sarchi, Pacas has a single-gene mutation that causes smaller plant size. Smaller sized trees enable producers to place trees closer together and increase potential yields. The Pacas variety is widely grown in El Salvador, where it accounts for approximately 25% of total coffee production and in Honduras, where the Honduran Institute of Coffee (IHCAFE) introduced the variety in 1974.
Source: https://perfectdailygrind.com/2015/11/interview-whats-so-special-about-pacamara/
Coffee in El Salvador
Don’t be fooled by El Salvador’s small size. It was once the 4th largest coffee producer worldwide and continues to produce high quality lots. The country is known for its great cupping varieties, such as Bourbon and Pacamara. In fact, two beloved, frequently high-scoring varieties—Pacas and Pacamara— originated in El Salvador.
Unlike other countries, where specialty coffee production has required a great deal of additional investment and training, El Salvador already has a broad and skilled specialty coffee workforce. Farming traditions run deep, and many Salvadorian farmers are extremely passionate about coffee production and continuously strive to improve their crop. El Salvador has optimal conditions for coffee processing. The prolonged dry season typically occurs during the harvest season, making it easier to sun dry coffee.
Though coffee output in the country has been declining for over two decades – exacerbated by the CLR crisis – the approach to coffee production has changed from volume- to quality-driven. A new generation of coffee producers has sprouted around the country with a new vision and approach to production. Many of this generation are experimenting with processing and varietals.