Partnership Coffee
The People of Finca Matala
In the late 1990’s after the Salvadoran Civil War, the government gave each of the 186 families that make up the Finca Matala a manzana (3 acres) of land. Each family had to either be a veteran of the war or the widow of a veteran. Finca Matala is an area of dense vegetation and steep mountainsides. The roads in the region have been constructed by the hands of the family without the help of modern technology or machinery.
The growers live in villages in and around Finca Matala. There are 30 separate villages consisting of between 15 and 70 families. Families are large and many have more than 10 children. There is no running water or electricity. Homes are makeshift and made of sticks and corrugated steel with dirt floors. Each home consists of one room.
Despite the living conditions, the families seem happy. The people are hard-working and family is very important. They take great pride in their work.
During harvest time they work from sunrise until sunset. The whole family participates in harvesting the cherries. Harvesting requires climbing steep mountainsides while filling their baskets and maneuvering the steep terrain. Older men carry a machete to trim the weeds that surround the tree and to get to hard to reach trees. The pride that they show of their coffee is extremely apparent. They will proudly show you that they only pick the ripe cherries. One man approached us, he had badly crippled hands from arthritis, but wanted to show us that he had picked 100 pounds of cherries throughout the day. They are also proud of the way that they maintain their coffee plants—they trim the trees a certain way in order to strengthen the tree and produce more cherries.
The people were very welcoming and took time out of their work to greet us. They continually offered food. Along with their food they always served coffee. They took great pride in their coffee. They were more than happy to show how they roasted their coffee over a wood fire in their kitchens.
The Coffee Growing Region
The coffee is grown in western El Salvador, in a region called Canton El Naranjijo Concepcion de Ataco. The coffee is from a co-op (official name is Asociacion cooperative Santa Cruz de Ataco) which covers an area of approximately 245 manzanas (1 manzana= 3 acres). The coffee is grown at an altitude of 4000-4700 ft about sea level. The coffee is shade grown and organic. Coffee is harvested between mid-November and January. Tree types are primarily Bourbon and Pacamara.
Harvesting
The coffee is picked over a period of 3 months. It is grown along the steep mountainside in dense vegetation. In order to reach this region it is a 2 hour plus trip on hard to navigate dirt roads. Once the cherries have reached their peak ripeness they are hand picked by the families of Finca Matala. The whole family takes part in the harvesting including the children starting at about eight years old. The families pick the coffee and place them in wicker baskets. They pick only the ripe cherries making a minimum of three passes by the same tree throughout the harvest time. These cherries are then placed in large bags and hauled to the roadside. A truck then comes and delivers the coffee to the processing plant. The truck then takes the coffee to the weigh station on the manzana where each person’s coffee is weighed and logged. At the end of the harvest season the growers will be paid according to the amount that they picked which is defined by what is recorded in the log book.
Each manzana will produce between 600 and 1,200 pounds of cherries, only 20% become green coffee. So each manzana or family only produces 120-240 pounds of coffee per year. They have sold the cherries to the processing plant for as little as $.50/lb in some years.
Preparation and Processing
The coffee is processed by a coffee processing plant, J.J. Borjavin Ataco. It is processed using the wet hulled method. This processing method removes the outer skin of the red cherries by a pulping machine. The beans are then mechanically sorted by size and weight and then put into fermentation thanks for four hours. The beans are then sun dried fro about 7-10 days.
We met with the general manager of this processing plant, Atilia Zededa Magawa. He is a gracious man who had been in the coffee business for over fifty years. We toured the facility and cupped 10 different coffees. After the tour we returned to this facility again at 11 pm. This is the time that the trucks start coming in from the plantations. The men at this plant will work until 6 in the morning. Harvesting and processing coffee is truly an around the clock event.
We were able to see the coffee from Finca Matala being processed. Once this coffee was unloaded from the truck, we wre able to see the difference in the quality of the cherries picked from Finca Matala compared to the other fincas. Only dark red cherries were present in Finca Matala’s crop compared to the green and overripe cherries from the other fincas. Their dedication is a testament to the commitment of quality from the growers of Finca Matala.
Uncommon Ground’s Partnership with Finca Matala
The growers of Finca Matala are good hard working proud people trying to provide for the families. They live in remote villages in one room homes with dirt floors and no electricity or running water.
The combination of their hard work and the location of their land, they produce exceptional coffee. However, they do not have the means to sell their coffee at a fair price.
Uncommon Grounds has committed to purchase their coffee at a price 50% more than they would receive otherwise. Uncommon Grounds will make an initial purchase of 10,000 pounds of coffee from Finca Matala. Our goal is to purchase their entire crop (40,000 pounds) in the future. We will visit annually monitoring their progress and invite others to join on a coffee tour of Finca Matala. We hope through our love for coffee we can improve the living conditions of our cohorts.
The People of Finca Matala
In the late 1990’s after the Salvadoran Civil War, the government gave each of the 186 families that make up the Finca Matala a manzana (3 acres) of land. Each family had to either be a veteran of the war or the widow of a veteran. Finca Matala is an area of dense vegetation and steep mountainsides. The roads in the region have been constructed by the hands of the family without the help of modern technology or machinery.
The growers live in villages in and around Finca Matala. There are 30 separate villages consisting of between 15 and 70 families. Families are large and many have more than 10 children. There is no running water or electricity. Homes are makeshift and made of sticks and corrugated steel with dirt floors. Each home consists of one room.
Despite the living conditions, the families seem happy. The people are hard-working and family is very important. They take great pride in their work.
During harvest time they work from sunrise until sunset. The whole family participates in harvesting the cherries. Harvesting requires climbing steep mountainsides while filling their baskets and maneuvering the steep terrain. Older men carry a machete to trim the weeds that surround the tree and to get to hard to reach trees. The pride that they show of their coffee is extremely apparent. They will proudly show you that they only pick the ripe cherries. One man approached us, he had badly crippled hands from arthritis, but wanted to show us that he had picked 100 pounds of cherries throughout the day. They are also proud of the way that they maintain their coffee plants—they trim the trees a certain way in order to strengthen the tree and produce more cherries.
The people were very welcoming and took time out of their work to greet us. They continually offered food. Along with their food they always served coffee. They took great pride in their coffee. They were more than happy to show how they roasted their coffee over a wood fire in their kitchens.
The Coffee Growing Region
The coffee is grown in western El Salvador, in a region called Canton El Naranjijo Concepcion de Ataco. The coffee is from a co-op (official name is Asociacion cooperative Santa Cruz de Ataco) which covers an area of approximately 245 manzanas (1 manzana= 3 acres). The coffee is grown at an altitude of 4000-4700 ft about sea level. The coffee is shade grown and organic. Coffee is harvested between mid-November and January. Tree types are primarily Bourbon and Pacamara.
Harvesting
The coffee is picked over a period of 3 months. It is grown along the steep mountainside in dense vegetation. In order to reach this region it is a 2 hour plus trip on hard to navigate dirt roads. Once the cherries have reached their peak ripeness they are hand picked by the families of Finca Matala. The whole family takes part in the harvesting including the children starting at about eight years old. The families pick the coffee and place them in wicker baskets. They pick only the ripe cherries making a minimum of three passes by the same tree throughout the harvest time. These cherries are then placed in large bags and hauled to the roadside. A truck then comes and delivers the coffee to the processing plant. The truck then takes the coffee to the weigh station on the manzana where each person’s coffee is weighed and logged. At the end of the harvest season the growers will be paid according to the amount that they picked which is defined by what is recorded in the log book.
Each manzana will produce between 600 and 1,200 pounds of cherries, only 20% become green coffee. So each manzana or family only produces 120-240 pounds of coffee per year. They have sold the cherries to the processing plant for as little as $.50/lb in some years.
Preparation and Processing
The coffee is processed by a coffee processing plant, J.J. Borjavin Ataco. It is processed using the wet hulled method. This processing method removes the outer skin of the red cherries by a pulping machine. The beans are then mechanically sorted by size and weight and then put into fermentation thanks for four hours. The beans are then sun dried fro about 7-10 days.
We met with the general manager of this processing plant, Atilia Zededa Magawa. He is a gracious man who had been in the coffee business for over fifty years. We toured the facility and cupped 10 different coffees. After the tour we returned to this facility again at 11 pm. This is the time that the trucks start coming in from the plantations. The men at this plant will work until 6 in the morning. Harvesting and processing coffee is truly an around the clock event.
We were able to see the coffee from Finca Matala being processed. Once this coffee was unloaded from the truck, we wre able to see the difference in the quality of the cherries picked from Finca Matala compared to the other fincas. Only dark red cherries were present in Finca Matala’s crop compared to the green and overripe cherries from the other fincas. Their dedication is a testament to the commitment of quality from the growers of Finca Matala.
Uncommon Ground’s Partnership with Finca Matala
The growers of Finca Matala are good hard working proud people trying to provide for the families. They live in remote villages in one room homes with dirt floors and no electricity or running water.
The combination of their hard work and the location of their land, they produce exceptional coffee. However, they do not have the means to sell their coffee at a fair price.
Uncommon Grounds has committed to purchase their coffee at a price 50% more than they would receive otherwise. Uncommon Grounds will make an initial purchase of 10,000 pounds of coffee from Finca Matala. Our goal is to purchase their entire crop (40,000 pounds) in the future. We will visit annually monitoring their progress and invite others to join on a coffee tour of Finca Matala. We hope through our love for coffee we can improve the living conditions of our cohorts.
Click on the link below to view pictures from our recent trip to El Salvador.
