El Progreso is Jairo Rodriguez’s farmstead high in the hills of Mozonte. After a long career as an agronomist and engineer for a larger multinational group, Jairo picked this unique and exceptional site to build not only his dream farm, but also a place he would enjoy spending his retirement. In his work, Jairo traveled all over the country to meet and consult with all sorts of producers on their farms - and to El Progreso he brings an excellent blend of this deep technical expertise steeped in the age-old knowhow the locals have passed on for generations.
The farm itself is situated very high up in altitude - 1650 meters above sea level at the mill and it goes up from there. Shaped like a bowl, it both gets whipped by the winds and also manages to maintain a little microclimate of its own. The small mill is entirely self-sustaining, and Jairo has planted rare “blood” apricots, Hass avocados, a cabbage patch, all organic, and picks calla lilies from the small stream where the bees keep busy. It is there he chose to plant the “H3” Centro-americano variety - which was originally bred as a high-altitude, fairly resistant alternative to many of the local coffee varieties. The coffee plants were not as resistant as they’d hoped, but the cross of the an Ethiopian landrace, with the endemic Caturra, yielded an exceptional and unique coffee that we can’t get enough of.
Processing is kept simple, but meticulous: the team of pickers sorts through the fruit before going through a copper-drum depulper. The coffee then ferments and is washed before going out to raised beds to shake off some moisture. Throughout this phase, whilst the parchment begins to cure, the pickers continue to pick out defects - so much so that by the time the coffee is ready to make its way down to the mill in town to finish drying it’s impeccable. Jairo’s production is small, but we are thrilled tome able to work with him exclusively and we look forward to growing together. The coffee has distinctive aroma of apricots, canned peaches, lemongrass, and caramel. The palate delivers on that acidity, juicy and mouthwatering - with a sweetness that reminds us of butterscotch hard candies. The finish is clean, and elegant with a long and lean sensation - very much a nod to its Ethiopian parents.
