88.74
Gloria Rodríguez - fourth generation coffee grower - owns and personally supervises six small farms located in the Apaneca-Ilamatepec mountain range: San José, Mamatita, El Porvenir, Nejapa, Nueva Granada and La Lagunita. Her efforts growing high-end coffee has been consistently awarded in every CoE competition since 2007. Being a woman of great character and experience, her role as a female grower has never been easy, but she always finds a solution with a positive attitude and proactiveness.
On top of the Nymph Lagoon, a volcanic crater nested in Apaneca, Finca La Lagunita is located at an altitude of 1,650 m.a.s.l. Within its 4.9 hectares, 3.5 ha. are dedicated to coffee, grown to heirloom Bourbón and Typica variety mainly, with some Elephante, a unknown coffee varietal that exhibits a very distinctive cup quality. The top of the hill, has been kept as a native forest, a sanctuary of hundred years old trees, many birds and animals that blow the visitor's mind.
This piece of land was Gloria's first farm, and she holds it very dear. When her father, José María Rodríguez decided in 1975 it was time for her to learn all the responsibilities of coffee farming, he symbolically presented her with his higher altitude farm: La Lagunita. Glorias father’s plan was to have her only daughter earn her own money to pay for her university and expenses, making it a case for Gloria to be near and vigilant of her own crop.
Being such a small farm, it has entered into a continuous program of rehabilitation to renew some of the exhausted tissue. Careful selective pruning with stem and root bending (agobios) are some of the cultural practices performed for four years now.
This year Gloria employed nearly 35 people during harvest, and all year round she manages a permanent "winter works" team of 15 people. The idea is to have a solid trained and skilled working group that receive better wages and working conditions. Gloria pays during harvest around 90% above legal minimum wage to give workers incentive and assure the best coffee cherries possible. After every production cycle, she gives a proportional bonus according to every week of labor of her “winter workers” that normally derives into a 1.2 months extra of income for them.
La Lagunita had four foliar fertilizations and two soil fertilizations, its soil type is predominantly sandy loam, and rainfall is between 2,000 to 2,700 mm annually. With the additional income from auctioned coffee, Gloria plans to improve husbandry practices at her farm and keep focus on improving quality at the farm and mill level.
The lot from La Lagunita was made of 7 days of harvest; every lot was fully washed and naturally fermented fro 20 to 24 hours and dried on raised beds and/or patios between 15 to 18 days. Every lot was cupped and approved in order to be to be submitted to competition.
| Rank | 7 |
|---|---|
| Farm Name | La Lagunita - 14 |
| Farmer/Rep. | Gloria Mercedes Rodriguez Fontan |
| Altitude | 1650 masl |
| Country | El Salvador |
| Year | 2014 |
| Size (30kg boxes) | 24 |
| City | Apaneca |
| Region | Ahuachapan |
| Program | El Salvador 2014 |
| Month | - |
| Aroma/Flavor | lime, green tea, green apple, chocolate, cedar tobacco, butter pie crust, bergamot, peach, dark chocolate, cedar, caramel aroma |
| Acidity | sparkling, complex, citric, juicy, transparent |
| Other | smooth and sweet finish, consistent, good structure and harmonious, finish like vanilla.Body: round, silky, creamy, viscous, smooth |
| Processing system | Washed |
| Variety | Bourbón |
| Coffee Growing Area | 5 ha |
| Farm Size | 7 ha |
| Auction Lot Size (lbs.) | 1572 |
| High bid | 10.05 |
| Total value | 15798.6 |
| High bidders | momos coffee, Coffee Libre |