In June we had the delight of welcoming José Guillermo (Epe) and Luisa from Finca Malacara A in El Salvador. Epe and Luisa spent a couple of days with us visiting the teams in our shops and roastery. The visit culminated in an evening of tasting a range of the new crop coffees from the farm and a wonderful talk with Epe.
Epe told us more about the history of the farm, starting with his great grandfather’s (Rafael Alvarez Lalinde) emigration in 1890 from Medellín in Colombia to Santa Ana in El Salvador. The country, especially around the Santa Ana region, had a lot of potential with its volcanic soil, high altitude, and coffee-friendly climate. Rafael had no experience growing coffee but proceeded to dedicate his life to it. He brought plants over from Colombia which by that time was already one of the largest coffee producers in the world. El Salvador, in comparison, had a nascent coffee growing industry, and many of the first farmers needed to build the infrastructure to grow and transport the crop. Epe said he often thinks about how pioneering this generation was, everything was moved by hand, horse, and ox.
By the 1920s, coffee had become an important crop for El Salvador. For a comparatively small country, it was producing a lot of coffee and Rafael’s farm was doing well. The logical next step for the family was to build a mill where the coffee could be processed using the traditional washed method. The depulper (machine that removes the skin and some of the mucilage from the cherry), and drum dryers (machines that dry the coffee once it has been processed) were manufactured in the UK and Germany. The mill, now known as El Borbollon, is owned by Epe’s cousin Eduardo Alvarez. Epe has all his coffee processed there and the equipment has since been replaced with modern equivalents.
The original Finca Malacara had been split into three smaller farms – A, B, and C – before Epe and his siblings started coffee farming. We first came across the Malacara farms during the 2003 El Salvador Cup of Excellence competition when we bought the third placed Malacara C. Epe’s coffee from Malacara A came second place. The competition and the access to the roasters that resulted from it, gave Epe the confidence to leave his day-job and follow his dream. In 2005, Epe, along with his sister María de Los Angeles, bought their two brothers’ share of the farm and dedicated their time to growing coffee. We met Epe a few times over the next few years after the 2003 competition, and we have bought his coffee every year since 2011.
Now over 130 years old, the farm continues in good health and productivity. With his core team, Rolando Contreras (Agricultural Engineer), Orlando Escamilla (General Manager), and Tulio Cunza (Farm Assistant), Epe is concentrating on regenerating the soil by keeping the ground cover alive and using more manual methods of control and plant health. He wants the farm to be ready for the next generation to take over and continue the family tradition of coffee growing.
The new crop from Malacara A will be on our counters this month.
Monmouth x