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. They purchased Santa Rosa, embracing the dream that coffee's golden age was about to arrive. Unexpectedly, when the farm construction was completed, coffee prices plummeted dramatically, leaving the brothers uncertain about what to do. Jose Roberto learned that the government was offering subsidies for forestry at the time, 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 winning first place in the Cup of Excellence! The first COE was held in El Salvador in 2003, and in 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 hybrid to be superior.

Santa Rosa spans 56 hectares, with the Rivera brothers dedicating 20 hectares to coffee cultivation, divided into four roughly equal sections. The original pine trees on the farm serve as shade trees. The local climate is quite dry and hot, but with pine forest shade, the microclimate improved significantly, making the entire estate look more like a Norwegian forest than a tropical rainforest.

Over the course of 10 years, they irrigated, fertilized, and processed Santa Rosa's coffee according to specialty coffee standards. In 2014, Santa Rosa captured the Cup of Excellence championship! Sadly, the elder Jorge Raul Rivera had passed away the previous year and couldn't witness the farm's moment of triumph.

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

The elder Jorge Raul Rivera not only established his own Santa Rosa Estate but was also a pioneer in coffee cultivation in the Chalatenango region. Today, this region has become El Salvador's most sought-after growing area, with several major Cup of Excellence awards landing here! Contradicting the conventional wisdom that only El Salvador's volcanic regions produced good coffee (such as Santa Ana), Chalatenango is located in the remote north, very close to the Honduran border. 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.

This 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 coffee, 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

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