El Salvador Natural - Rene Contreras - El Rocio

Producer: Rene Contreras

Farm: El Rocio

Region: Santa Ana

Elevation: 1200-1400 meters

Cultivar: Bourbon

Process: Natural

Notes: Cherry Preserves, Fruit Punch, Concord Grape, Guava

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The Contreras Family has been growing coffee in El Salvador for five generations spanning over 100 years. Their farms are located adjacent to the Chingo Volcano near Santa Ana. This terroir provides rich clay soil for a variety of coffee cultivars to thrive. In recent years, Rene has done a lot of work to ensure his coffee is up to specialty coffee quality standards by diversifying the varieties of coffee he grows, implementing better post-harvest practices and new processing techniques such as honey, natural, and controlled fermentations.

This natural processed coffee comes from their newest farm, El Rocio, which was purchased in 2018. The Contreras family has worked diligently to plant new coffee plants and renovate the farm to produce the highest quality of coffee possible.

The family has many aspirations to improve the quality of life in their community by opening health clinics near their farm. Rene’s wife and daughter are both doctors and have identified many needs in the surrounding area, particularly for prenatal care, diabetes management, and parasite treatment. Rene and his family are also looking to start a program to provide food assistance to their workers and families to ensure they have diverse and healthy foods to avoid malnutrition. They also operate an animal sanctuary on their property to care for sick and injured animals.