El Salvador Coffee COE Estate - Cup of Excellence Champion Santa Rosa Estate Introduction

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The Dream of Excellence: Santa Rosa Estate's Journey to Cup of Excellence Victory

Santa Rosa Estate, which claimed victory in El Salvador's Cup of Excellence (COE), began with a dream conceived a quarter-century ago: to win the COE championship.

In 1979, the elder Jorge Raul Rivera started growing coffee in La Palma, Chalatenango — but El Salvador's civil war had just erupted, making it impossible to find coffee farms at the time.

Twenty-four years ago, when coffee prices were at their peak, Rivera and his brother Jose Roberto saw their opportunity and purchased Santa Rosa, certain that coffee's golden age was about to arrive. Unexpectedly, by the time the farm construction was finished, coffee prices had plummeted, leaving the brothers unsure what to do. Jose Roberto learned that the government was then offering subsidies for forestry, so they changed course: when Santa Rosa opened in 2000, they planted not coffee, but pine trees.

In 2002, the brothers heard that the Cup of Excellence would be held in El Salvador and decided to return to their roots of growing coffee, setting the ambitious goal of one day taking first place. The first Salvadoran COE was held in 2003, and that same year Santa Rosa began planting coffee, focusing on the superior Pacamara variety. Pacamara is a hybrid of Pacas and Maragogype, and Rivera selected Pacamara with dominant Maragogype genetics, believing this cross to be superior.

Santa Rosa spans 56 hectares, of which the Rivera brothers dedicated 20 to coffee, divided into four roughly equal sections. The original pine trees serve as shade. The local climate is dry and hot, but under the pine canopy the microclimate improved dramatically — the whole estate looks more like a Norwegian forest than a tropical rainforest.

Over the course of 10 years, they irrigated, fertilized, and processed Santa Rosa's coffee to specialty standards. In 2014, Santa Rosa captured the Cup of Excellence championship! Sadly, the elder Jorge Raul Rivera had passed away the previous year and never saw the farm's moment of triumph.

The estate now belongs to the elder Rivera's son Raul (also named Jorge Raul Rivera). The Honey process Pacamara that won the 2014 championship was their first time competing with a honey process. In April 2017, Santa Rosa won again with a Honey process Pacamara — and a month later, at the May 18th auction, it was purchased by a Japanese roaster for an impressive $95.70 per pound!

The elder Jorge Raul Rivera not only built his own Santa Rosa Estate but was also a pioneer of coffee cultivation in the Chalatenango region, which today is El Salvador's most sought-after growing area, home to several major Cup of Excellence awards. This contradicts the conventional wisdom that only El Salvador's volcanic regions produced good coffee (such as Santa Ana): Chalatenango lies in the remote north, very close to the Honduran border, and despite having no volcanoes it produces some of the world's finest coffee. Reaching Santa Rosa and nearby farms requires a four-wheel drive vehicle.

The washed Pacamara currently available is the 2nd place auction lot from "Best of El Salvador 2016." Last year El Salvador did not hold a Cup of Excellence; instead, Australia's Project Origin hosted the "Best of El Salvador" competition. Honey Coffee successfully bid on this lot, and we're honored to offer it!

Coffee Details

El Salvador Chalatenango Finca Santa Rosa Pacamara washed

Country: El Salvador

Region: Chalatenango

Estate: Finca Santa Rosa

Owner: Raul Rivera

Altitude: 1500 meters

Variety: Pacamara

Harvest Season: February

Processing Method: Washed

Award Records: 2014, 2017 El Salvador Cup of Excellence Champion

• 2011 COE: 5th place, 90.69 points
• 2013 COE: 20th place, 85.77 points
• 2014 COE: 1st place, 91.41 points / 12th place, 86.97 points
• 2015 COE: 8th place, 88.32 points
• 2016 "Best of El Salvador": Natural/Honey process champion / Washed process 2nd place
• 2017 COE: 1st place, 91.28 points

FrontStreet Coffee Suggested Brewing Parameters

Recommended Brewing Method: Pour-over

Dripper: V60

Water Temperature: 89-91°C

Brewing Time: 2 minutes

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation: Competition-Level Flavor for Everyday Brewers

A COE-winning Pacamara is a rare treat, but FrontStreet Coffee believes great coffee shouldn't need a trophy to be worth drinking. For an accessible first step into premium single origins, try our Panama Boquete washed Geisha from the country's most representative specialty region: with pure Geisha genetics and washed processing, it pours out that unmistakable orange-blossom honey character — citrus, berry, and florals in a balanced, silky cup, like a fruit tisane with none of the bitterness. For everyday drinking, our Brazil Cerrado Red Bourbon offers cream, peanut, and cocoa at a friendly price, while the Yunnan 2013 Natural Typica delivers hazelnut, dried apricot, black tea, and caramel from 1300-meter farms.