2 - El Conacaste - El Salvador 2026 (Dry)

In 2014, coffee was not the plan for El Conacaste. The farm was
already a reforestation project, covered by cypress forest and focused on
conservation. At the time, we were growing strawberries and later bell peppers in
greenhouses that today serve as our coffee drying houses.
Around that same period, after a conversation, we decided to try something different and
planted our first 1,000 coffee trees under the shade of the forest as a small experiment.
We simply wanted to see if coffee could grow here. It did more than grow. It surprised us.
Year after year, we kept planting new lots and learning along the way. Today, our coffee
grows between 1,450 and 1,800 m.a.s.l. in the mountains of El Trifinio, neighboring
Montecristo National Park, surrounded by forest, wildlife, and a landscape we have
worked to restore and protect.
Our journey in Cup of Excellence has been part of that story. We earned 2nd place in
2021, 1st place in 2022, 3rd place in 2025, and now 2nd place again in 2026. For a farm
that started with a small trial under cypress trees, these moments feel hard to put into
words. They are a reminder of the years behind every harvest, every decision, and every
season.
But El Conacaste has always been about more than coffee. The farm remains, first and
foremost, a reforestation and conservation project. Coffee became another way to
protect this land, giving value to the forest while preserving the ecosystem around it.
El Conacaste was never created to be a coffee farm. Coffee arrived later. The forest
came first.