La Avila SL28, El Salvador
- Red Grape
- Nougat
- Toffee
- Process
- Fully Washed
- Variety
- SL28
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From the source
El Salvador
Direct tradeOur relationships in El Salvador include the Ortiz family at Finca Las Mercedes and Sergio and Isabel Ticas at Finca Los Planes. Both farms earned top places in the country’s 2006 Cup of Excellence, a competition that ranks its best coffees. Those results helped bring us together.
- Min. altitude
- 800–1,000 m by region
- Harvest
- From Oct, peak Oct–Jan
- Varieties
- Bourbon, Pacas, Pacamara
- Process
- Almost all washed
- With Bird Rock
- Two family farms
Shop this origin
$23.00
El Salvador
La Avila SL28
$23.00
Who we buy from
The farms, families and cooperatives behind our El Salvador coffees.
Finca Las Mercedes — the Ortiz family
The Ortiz family has grown coffee at Las Mercedes since 1886, passing the farm through five generations. It lies near Santiago de María in Usulután, in the mountains of Cerro El Tigre.
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After Las Mercedes placed first in the 2006 Cup of Excellence, Lucia Ortiz, who manages the farm’s marketing and relationships, called Bird Rock owner Jeff Taylor. Our partnership has continued since.
The family rebuilt its wet mill, water tanks and drying patios after a 2001 earthquake destroyed the original clay patios. It later added raised drying beds. Its work also reaches beyond the farm: the family built and supplies a local school and a health clinic serving more than 13 surrounding communities.
The farm’s coffees described in our sourcing story include washed SL28 lots from its highest section, La Avila, and La Primavera Natural, an SL28 dried inside the whole cherry. El Pepinal Honey is a Bourbon processed with some of the sticky fruit layer left on the seed during drying.
Finca Los Planes — Sergio and Isabel Ticas
Sergio and Isabel Ticas farm Los Planes in the mountains of Chalatenango, at about 1,600–1,900 metres. Sergio placed second in the 2006 Cup of Excellence and used the prize money to improve the farm’s mill and future harvests.
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After that result, Jeff and Sergio quickly became good friends. Recalling his first visit, Jeff described Sergio’s passion for the land, the people he works with and the coffee he produces.
More recently, the farm installed a water recovery system that purifies water before returning it to the ecosystem. Its coffees described in our sourcing story include El Matazano, a washed Pacamara named after a native shade tree growing among the coffee, and La Lagunita Bourbon Honey.
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50% 0%“Shade trees protect soil, help rain reach aquifers and provide wildlife habitat.”El Salvador
About the land
Growing coffee in El Salvador
Most Salvadoran coffee grows on volcanic slopes along the Pacific side of the country, with other farms in the northern mountains near Honduras. Six recognised coffee regions span these ranges; the largest, Apaneca-Ilamatepec, surrounds the Santa Ana volcano in the west.
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Rich volcanic soils, elevation and seasonal rain shape growing conditions. The rainy season generally runs from May to October, followed by a dry season from November to April. Shade trees protect soil, help rain reach aquifers and provide wildlife habitat. Coffee farms hold much of the country’s remaining tree cover.
Bourbon has long been central to Salvadoran coffee, alongside two locally developed varieties: Pacas, a natural Bourbon mutation, and Pacamara, a cross between Pacas and Maragogipe. All three are vulnerable to coffee leaf rust. Since the 2012–13 epidemic, growers have planted more resistant varieties alongside them.
Almost all Salvadoran coffee is washed: the fruit is removed, and the seeds are fermented, rinsed and sun-dried. Harvest starts on lower farms around October and moves uphill, with the highest farms sometimes picking into March. Weather can shift that timing and affect the crop.
A brief history
By the 1880s, coffee was El Salvador’s main export. Governments abolished communal lands for coffee planting, concentrating ownership among a small elite. Dependence on coffee left rural workers exposed when export prices and wages fell during the Great Depression. In 1932, a rural uprising was followed by military reprisals known as La Matanza, which killed an estimated 15,000–30,000 peasants.
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Production expanded through the following decades. Land reform in 1980 turned the largest estates into cooperatives, while civil war discouraged farm care and replanting. Peace came in 1992, but ageing trees, price crises and farm abandonment continued to strain the industry.
The 2012–13 leaf-rust epidemic cut the national crop by about 60 percent within a year and eliminated tens of thousands of seasonal harvest jobs. The smaller industry has since turned towards specialty coffee and small lots, while growers continue to face debt, labour shortages and less predictable rain.
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