Saxbys in El Salvador, Part 2
This January, Saxbys team members Richard Rollier and Lauren Stevis joined coffee roasters Dillanos on a coffee origin trip to El Salvador. In the second installment of this two-part blog series, our Training Manager Lauren shares her experience.
Day 2: Finca El Manzano
The day I was looking forward to most had finally arrived! We packed our things and hurried onto our tour bus so we couldbegin the hour long journey to Emilio’s farm: Finca El Manzano. There are fewhumans in this world that are as adamantly passionate and as completely transparent as Emilio Diaz. He radiates wisdom and strength and is so clearly dedicated to the production, export, quality and traceability of coffee that it’s impossible not to listen attentively while he speaks.
After arriving at Finca El Manzano we were immediately given a tour of his processing warehouses and several different crop fields where thousands of coffee trees grow. The whole tour was a full-body sensory experience, from the mountain winds, high altitude climate and scorching sun, to the smell of raw earth, sweet coffee cherries and intensely acidic compost. Emilio showed us several of his varietals and explained how much time and consideration he takes researching and implementing innovative growing techniques. Emilio has acres upon acres of coffee that he is responsible for, and he is constantly challenging himself to be better. For him, coffee production goes way beyond growing and picking coffee cherries. He is responsible for years of growth, maintaining relationships with roasters all over the world, educating his team and constantly adapting to new climates and production challenges. Finca El Manzano also handles all of the processing of the coffee cherries. Their processing warehouse is meticulously organized and the drying patios are immaculately clean. Emilio even has his own roasting warehouse that handles small batches for some of his local customers.
While on our tour, he allowed us to spend about 20 minutes picking ripe cherries from his trees that we then handed over to the workers closest to us to add to their total picking for the day. The fact that I’ve gone from being a barista, to managing a café, to training new team members…to ultimately be able to experience the coffee picking process was absolutely invigorating. However, even after only 20 minutes it was easy to tell that this picking process was no easy job.
Seeing how expansive Emilio’s production facility is and the hours of man-power needed to sustain such an incredible organization was probably one of the most eye-opening and memorable aspects of the entire trip. I am so proud to have met such an incredible human being and to even be in the presence of two such admirable operations (Café Pacas and Finca El Manzano). I left knowing that when I returned home to Saxbys, I would make it a top priority to radiate the passion both Maria and Emilio have for the growth and traceability of coffee into all of my future training sessions. I will also hold myself accountable for making sure every learner I encounter in my future training sessions is excited about and educated in the “where and how” we source our coffee and to respect it as much as I respected the education I received in El Salvador.
