El Salvador Coffee Buying
We’re releasing coffees purchased on our 2018 El Salvador coffee buying trip, we again visited the farms of the Mendez-Ortiz family. In this remote region of El Salvador, they steward the Natamaya and Talnamica farms. The small village houses the coffee farmers is called Ojo de Agua. The hard-working, kind-hearted people there have the Caffe Ladro team smitten.
Ladro customer coffee purchases permit us to donate to this special community. We’ve helped build a soccer field at the school, and provided funds for bringing electricity up the mountain. We’re excited to learn how the village will put this year’s $3,500 donation to use.
Always, the farm owners, Hermann and Nena, explore and implement best coffee practices while providing for the medical needs of the coffee workers and the medical and educational needs of the children.
Jack Kelly arrived at peak harvest season. Coffee cherries waited for hands to carefully pick them. Cherries already harvested waited in various states of processing and drying. The cherries drying in the natural process struck our coffee buyer as particularly beautiful.
We also arrived with some much needed soccer supplies. With extra balls, air pumps and air needles, the children should have everything they need to enjoy many games to come. 
[…] When possible, Kelly delivers Ladro’s roasted coffee back to the farmers to sample and enjoy. He works with farms that provide higher wages, day-care, school, food and lodging during harvest times. He encourages careful land stewardship, water conservation, erosion prevention, and soil health as he tours farms and chooses coffees. Kelly describes visits to coffee origin as, “incredibly humbling.” Each year, Kelly returns to Seattle with stories of the coffee farmers and millers to share with Ladro customers. Some of our favorite stories come from Jack’s trips to El Salvador. There we work most closely with our friends at Fincas Natamaya & Talnamica. […]
[…] us, it is short-hand for the many connections we make through COFFEE with customers, staff, family, farmers, and […]