10 - El Izotal - El Salvador 2024 (Experimental)

El Izotal farm is named for its location in the village of El Izotal, Canton Los Planes, Municipality of La Palma, Department of Chalatenango.

This story begins a long time ago, when I was just a child my mother told us about the farm that Juan Solis (my grandfather) had. My mother told us that her father had an Arabica coffee plantation which is the same as the Borbón Indio. She told us that every year end they harvested coffee with their brothers, sisters, neighbors and family members. My mother, Valeria Solis, told us that her father saved a considerable amount of money every year when he sold the processed coffee from each harvest and thus almost every year he bought a small piece of land.

In addition, she told us that everyone who went to harvest coffee would bring their lunches and they would gather them all together and share them. At that time, I began to imagine that I could do a good business and that sharing among family and neighbors was an excellent idea.

Later on, when I became an adult, I bought a plot of land at medium altitude, about 900 masl, where I planted Pacas coffee, but this was a generic coffee. Later I bought another plot of land in the elevated zone (El Izotal) and it was there where I planted different varieties among them: Pacamara, Borbón, Paquita, Lempira and Geisha with the aspiration of harvesting coffee with the highest quality standards, which became a reality, since we have participated in the last Cup of Excellence contests, events promoted by the Salvadoran Coffee Institute and we have also participated in the Trifinio contests that also recognize the best coffee of El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala obtaining recognition in these events.

In order to arrive to the farm El Izotal there are about 125 Km from San Salvador, where 82 Km are by the Troncal del Norte highway, 18 Km from San Ignacio to Rio Chiquito that are all steep road, and finally 25 Km that are by rustic road and very difficult access, In other words the last 25 Km are totally an extreme adventure, and the road is not appropriate for people with hypertension, but it is a mountain where you can experience a lot of peace and tranquility, where the lungs can be detoxified very easily, there is no noise from cars, only the whisper of the wind and the singing of birds like the torogoz. The estimated time to get to Izotal can take between 4 to 5 hours from San Salvador to the farm.

The projects planned in the long term to improve our “PI-K-CHO COFFEE”, which is the flagship brand of coffee produced and processed at Finca El Izotal, include improving access to be able to bring everything the farm needs, remodeling the coffee processing facilities (African beds, warehouses and technological equipment) and finally exporting our coffee and making it known in the international market.

All this work began with Don Alfonso Pineda and his collaborators, among whom are his wife, his children and workers from different areas of Chalatenango and Izotal, people without whom it would not be possible to achieve anything, since, with their willingness to support us have benefited the bonds of brotherhood, and has brought development, education and economic welfare to more families in need, which had been completely forgotten since the time of the civil war in El Salvador without paying due attention to its people, being this a place in El Salvador where the people and coffee are of strict and exquisite quality.