Fernando Alfaro El Cocal, El Salvador

Finca El Cocal sits in the Ataco mountain range of Apaneca, El Salvador, where farmer Fernando Alfaro tends to his 10.5-hectare farm. The region, known for its microclimate and rich indigenous heritage, provides ideal conditions for growing exceptional coffee. Fernando is part of Agricola San Agustin, his family’s fourth-generation coffee company dedicated to specialty production, processing, and export.

At 1,300 meters in the Apaneca-Llamatepec mountains, Finca El Cocal cultivates Bourbon, Pacas, and Gesha varieties primarily. Like many producers experimenting with extended fermentation techniques, Fernando keeps his methods a closely guarded family secret—especially for the higher-end, boutique lots produced by the family.

For this Bourbon and Pacas blend, cherries are picked at peak ripeness, carefully sorted to remove defects, and dried on raised beds or patios for a month or more. The drying process is meticulously controlled and sometimes intentionally extended, depending on the lot and cup profile Fernando looks to create. This lot underwent anaerobic fermentation prior to drying—where cherries are sealed in a container without oxygen for a controlled period—resulting in amplified fruit intensity, bright acidity, and a fuller body.

Natural processing in El Salvador is still relatively new but gaining momentum, and producers like Fernando are already experimenting with modern approaches, including controlled bacteria and yeast in fermentation.

Fernando has planted over 2,500 Bourbon and Pacas trees, and invested in infrastructure like raised beds and fermentation tanks to refine his processing techniques. His farm yields around 12 tonnes of coffee annually. As part of our export partner’s ‘Farm Select Coffees,’ this lot offers an elevated cup profile with full traceability—an opportunity to support dedicated farmers with direct monetary impact for quality premiums.

El Salvador may be the smallest country in Central America, but its coffee reputation is anything but. First cultivated in the 1700s, coffee became a major export in the 1800s, surpassing indigo as the country’s most valuable crop. By the 1970s, it accounted for half of the GDP. Civil war in the 1980s disrupted the industry, forcing many producers to abandon their farms, leaving them overgrown and unharvested for years.

After a peace agreement was reached in the 1990s, the coffee sector slowly revived. The Cup of Excellence competition in 2003 reignited global interest, and today, El Salvador focuses on quality over quantity, with 70% of its coffee selling for premiums above commodity prices.