Los Cipreses

In early 2018 I had the opportunity to travel to El Salvador as part of a USDA funded program designed to help improve Salvadoran agricultural exports. Along with a handful of other Q Graders from the US and South Korea, I was asked to evaluate coffees from over sixty Salvadoran producers and then participate in a focus session on what coffees had the most viability in the market, why, and how to improve outcomes for coffees not yet ready for the specialty market. 

The focus sessions were a direct conversation between the evaluators and the producers, and in a lot of cases, we had to tell farmers whose livelihood for generations was producing coffee that they would struggle to sell the product of their hard work in the US.

This was a difficult few days.

At the end of the first session I was taking a water break when a young Salvadoran couple approached me to tell me that I had evaluated their coffee and they appreciated the feedback. German and Hilda were at the event representing their family farm, Monteverde. Their coffee stood out - it was one of my favorite samples - and they stood out as well. They were about the same age as me, super friendly, passionate, and they were just comfortable to be around. So when they asked me if I wanted to take a few days to travel with them to their farm and some surrounding farms, I quickly said yes.

The next morning, German, a total stranger to me, was sitting outside my hotel in his truck, ready to show me Monteverde. During the roughly two hour drive from San Salvador to Candelaria de la Frontera, just north of Santa Ana, German and I became fast friends. I learned that Monteverde was a family operation that he had married into. Rene Contreras, his wife Hilda’s father, owned and operated several farms with his brothers that all made up the Monteverde estate which extends right up to the border with Guatemala. German and Hilda had just had a daughter, and he told me she’d be the fifth generation owner of Monteverde.

We spent two days touring the estate, learning about the history of the farm, Rene’s efforts toward sustainability, his desire to focus on ever improving quality, and laying the groundwork of what would become an impactful and meaningful partnership for us both. Rene, a retired calvary commander, and his wife Hilda, a doctor, invited me into their home, offered me a place to sleep, and fed me well (we had spaghetti and meatballs which was fun, because no matter where you are in the world, there is likely a Subway Sandwich Shop, an Irish Pub, and almost everyone loves spaghetti and meatballs).

I came home and we set about trying to figure out how to get the coffee from Monteverde to the Blanchard’s roastery. The first year we were able to piggyback a few bags from another importer and the coffee was a success. The following year, we started to figure out how to get a full container. Now, each year, coffees from Monteverde make up a large portion of our blend components for much of the year in addition to the Single Origin offerings we’re most excited to share with you.