Finca Colomba has been in the Adolfo family for 3 generations.
In 1949, Adolfo McEntee inherited two properties from his family in the Cordillera de Llamatepec, on the slopes of the Santa Ana Volcano.
At this time, Don Adolfo began planting Bourbon coffee trees at Finca Colomba and Finca San Francisco. Don Adolfo’s son, José Adolfo MCentee Batlle inherited the farms and continued the legacy before passing down to his son “Fofo”.
After having been kidnapped twice during the civil war throughout the country, José Adolfo emigrated to Miami with his son and left the management of the farm to Mario Valiente, owner of Finca Calera. In 2014, Mario Valiente built Colomba’s dry mill so the farm has direct control over every step of the process from farm to export. Great care is taken preparing each coffee for exporting and 10 women, who are heads of their households, oversee the final quality check through manual sorting.
Finca Colomba grows Yellow Caturra, Red Caturra, Sanpacho, Gesha, Pacas, Cuscatleco, Red Bourbon, Pink Bourbon, Pacamara, and some Kenyan varieties were recently planted.
The rich volcanic soil and elevations over 1,500 meters above sea level come together for ideal growing conditions.
Mario Valiente implements multiple processing methods at the wet mill including carbonic macerated and anaerobic fermented naturals, traditional naturals, honey, fully washed, semi-washed and more. Each process is tasted and stored according to the cupping result.
The farm permanently employs 80 people and up to 210 people from nearby towns during the picking season. Aware of the need in the surrounding communities, Finca Colomba supports schools in the area, hosts medical conferences to provide accessible healthcare and distributes toys to children during the Christmas season.
History of Coffee in El Salvador
Coffee was first introduced to El Salvador from the Caribbean as a garden crop in the mid-18th century but did not gain a commercial production foothold until 1850’s because indigo, easier to grow and more profitable, was king. Coffee was first exported—695 bags—in 1856 and the government began to encourage coffee farming. Exponential growth coincided with the development of synthetic indigo near the end of the century. At one time, El Salvador was one of the largest producers of commercial coffees. Today, with a focus on quality over quantity, 70% of coffee from El Salvador sells for a premium above commodity prices.
Growing Coffee in El Salvador
In 1975 El Salvador was, remarkably for its size, one of the largest coffee producers in the world, exporting 3.8 million bags. Today, a good year is 600,000 bags. Today, 86% of producers are responsible for only 20% of the country’s production, having 7 hectares or less. This means that 80% of coffee production is controlled by only 14% of producers. And yet, because peace in El Salvador and the opening of coffee farming to smallholders coincided with the emergence of the specialty coffee sector in consuming countries and the inevitable rise of new-thinking generations within old families, there is a pervasive focus on quality regardless of farm size. Most coffee from El Salvador was sold at a differential price above commodity prices.
Country: El Salvador
Region: Chalchuapa, Santa Ana Department
Farm: Finca Colomba
Elevation: 1500 MASL
Variety: Pacamara
Processing: Natural
Tasting notes: Medium-heavy with flavors of cherry, grapefruit, green apple, milk chocolate, and chamomile.