el salvador ojo de agua- dehydrated honey process

Producer: Carlos Pola

Farm: Finca Las Brisas

Municipality: Juayua

Department: Sonsonate

Process: Dehydrated Honey

Processing Manager: Arturo Antonio Acuna

Varieties:Pacas

Elevation: 1300masl

Roast Degree: Light - Medium

We taste raspberry, blackberry, marmalade, and prune in this dehydrated honey process coffee from Juayua municipality in the Sonsonate Department of El Salvador. This coffee is for those silent moments in the morning, right before your day gets busy. Savor the smoothness before the day begins to ripple.

The Pola Family- We got the chance to meet Carlos & Patricia Pola at World of Coffee in Copenhagen, Denmark this summer. It was there that they shared that their family has been in the coffee business for over a century. But it was Carlos’ desire to launch the family business in the specialty realm in order to create a more sustainable future for them in coffee. Additionally, we met their son, who lives in Spain, and is building relationships with various roasters in and around his country to seek diversification and stability in connecting their crops to the world.

Their family manages three farms: San Antonio, Las Brisas, and San Rogue in which coffee production is evolving each year. In order to eliminate their reliance on pesticides and fertilizers, they began harnessing the dynamic and symbiotic relationships between plant species. His style of regenerative agriculture is saving specialty coffee in El Salvador as production becomes increasingly challenging. Additionally, they have been slowing the drying process, screening the raised beds for extra shade, to add five to six days of drying. This allows for drying to happen from the inside out, maintaining stable cell activity, preserving flavor profiles longer and creating higher quality and consistent coffees each year. 

On Dehydrated Honey Process- After picking and sorting, cherries are store for 48 hours in porous bags exposed to oxygen in a ventilated shaded area. During this fermentation stage (mucilage) dehydrates and oxidizes. The coffee is then depulped with minimal water and placed on raised beds to dry with a good amount of mucilage intact.

Unravel Coffee Merchants & Bext360- We sourced this coffee through Unravel Coffee Merchants. We first connected with Unravel in November of 2023 to learn more about their organization and partnerships. We were impressed by their desire for more traceability in the industry, utilizing blockchain-based technology, launched byBext360. The goal of partnering with Bext360 is to prove origin, authenticity, and sustainability in tracing the journey of every coffee bean.