Producer: Carlos Pola Country: El Salvador Farms: Finca Las Brisas & Finca San Antonio Growing Region: Apaneca Ilamatepec
Carlos Pola cultivates coffee in a dramatically new and sustainable manner. While continuously experimenting with new processing methods, Pola produces honeys, naturals, and controlled fermentations consistently. His passion for traceability led him to develop an application used by his farm team to track all stages from harvest through green exportable; something he hopes to share with other producers. He’s driven by supporting the coffee-growing community of Juayua and the surrounding Apaneca-Ilamatepec region.
Core Team Members Óscar | Quality control Adíel | Processing director at Finca San Antonio Ermelinda | Processing specialist at Finca San Antonio
Farm Stats Farm: Finca Las Brisas Location: Ojo de Agua, Juayua Altitude: 1300 m Coffees grown here: Heirloom Hybrid 2, Parainema, Pacamara
Farm: Finca San Antonio Location: San Juan de Dios, Juayua Altitude: 1400 m Coffees grown here: Heirloom Hybrid 1, Pacas, Pacamara
Processing Methods The dedicated harvest team understands the specific shade of red the cherries need to be before picking, but all cherries are still hand sorted, then floated to ensure peak ripeness.
Dehydrated Honey After picking and sorting, cherries are stored for 48 hours in porous bags exposed to oxygen in a ventilated shaded area. During this fermentation stage honey (mucilage) dehydrates and oxidizes. The coffee is then depulped with minimal water and placed on raised beds to dry with a lot of mucilage intact.
Anaerobic Natural After handpicking cherries and doing a quick sort to ensure ripeness and quality, coffees go into fermentation tanks void of oxygen for 72 hours; CO2 is released through a one-way valve. After this controlled fermentation coffees go onto raised beds intact (dry process) for roughly 2-3 weeks utilizing partial sun and air to dry while being stirred often to promote even drying.
