Raul Rivera
This is our seventh year buying coffee from Jorge Raul Rivera. Raul is a second generation coffee producer, based just outside the town of La Palma, in the far north-west of El Salvador, close to the border with Honduras. His farm, Finca Santa Rosa, is located at around 1550 masl on the slopes of El Pital, El Salvador’s highest point. The farm is planted mainly with the famed Salvadoran varietal Pacamara, and has produced some of the country’s highest quality coffees in recent years.
Finca Santa Rosa
Jorge Raul Rivera Sr. began growing coffee in the region around La Palma in 1979. He was one of the first to grow coffee in the area, and one of the few that stayed during El Salvador’s brutal civil war, as many others abandoned their land, sold cheap and fled into neighbouring Honduras. As El Salvador began to settle again after the war, the Riveras bought the land that would become Finca Santa Rosa, and began to grow timber, due to government subsidies aiming to help the post-war rebuilding effort.
Years of work have resulted in three overall wins, in 2014, 2017 and 2019, all with their honey-processed Pacamara. The pine from the old timber plantations has been retained as shade for the coffee, always reminding us of a Scandinavian pine forest during our visits. The pine needles capture moisture from evening mists and distribute it in the soil, while providing a source of organic material when they fall.
This Honey Pacamara is becoming somewhat of a feature coffee for us here at La Cabra, with the floral notes of the Pacamara shining clearly through the sugary sweet character produced by the honey process, tied together by a crisp blood orange freshness.
