Finca Nejapa - Yellow Caturra, El Salvador

"This family driven farm is a great example of when hard work and skills really pays off in quality. By working together this can maintain and potentially also increase the working conditions. ” Joanna Alm, Drop Coffee

 Finca Nejapa is a family driven business. The person we have most contact with is Luis, being Glorias son in law. The farm was inherited by Gloria’s father, José María Rodríguez Herrera in the 50’s, by that time the property was only devoted to cattle for milking purposes, and it was José Maria who started growing coffee of the Bourbon variety, little by little he noticed coffee was extremely productive in that area. The turnout at the processing station is also of a higher standard than we've seen in El Salvador, e.g they have a separate room for the crew to sit and have lunch and rules about washing their hands and hygiene around the coffee. Staff onsite also turn the coffee only by hand, log the moisture at different stages of the drying process, and have access to a great cupping lab with well trained crew in taste and routines. 

Nejapa farm also 7 hectares reforested with cedar trees of approximately 10 years old. The farm also has a diversity of shade trees, which helps maintain and preserve both the soil conditions and a wide variety of birds and small mammals that can be seen even in that region. This farm is on the slopes of the Laguna de Las Ninfas (Water lilies lagoon) with a spectacular sight over the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range. Every year, Gloria establishes nurseries with selected seeds to keep her farm in good shape, balance production and secure future crops. 

At the end of December 2016 we did a charity dinner with Mathias Dahlgren and WINETRADE for Finca Nejapa. We collected 35000SEK that will go to new solar panels and filter for clean water at the farm. This will be handed over in January 2017 when we visit Finca Nejapa. 

Tablón Roma, that we are buying, is located in the western side of Finca Nejapa but was left unplated until 10 years ago, when Gloria obtained a loan through a local Investment Bank to redevelop and re plant this area. The variety chosen for this plot was red and yellow Caturra, in those days it was in vogue planting this short-size producing tree with good yields needed to repay the loan, gladly variety and terroir combination resulted in great quality coffee as well. 

This farm was awarded in El Salvador Cup of Excellence in 2008 and 2009 with just the Roma lot. 

FACTS
Producer: The Rodriguez Family
Farm: Finca Nejapa
Tablon: Roma 
Region: Ahuachapán, Santa Ana
Varietal: Yellow Caturra
Picked: May 2016
Elevation: 1550 masl
Flavour description: Creamy with a medium body and notes of yellow fruit, milk chocolate and hazelnut.