San Cayetano

Description

Roasted August 3, 2026 San Cayetano Red Caturra is produced by the Rafael and Carmen Da Silva Hoff of El Salvador. While sourcing green coffee we meet a lot of hard-working producers, but none are as focused and work as many hours of the day as Carmen and Rafael Da Silva Hoff, who run six different farms and a processing mill to boot Rafael was first introduced to coffee growing when he was 21 years-old and got his first farm from his father. A few years later he met his wife Carmen. The couple got married in their young 30s and since then they are running their coffee business together. Today their two sons, Rafael Gerardo and Rodrigo, and their daughter Valeria are also involved in the business, making a it full family operation.  In 2010, they decided to invest in their own mill, called San Pedro, not to make more money, but to gain full control of the full process of their coffee production. Today at San Pedro they not only process coffee from their own farms separated by lots and varietals, and but also for other producers in the area.  In El Salvador, the biggest challenge is security for the people and the coffee fungus called leaf rust (roja). As in most places in El Salvador, the neighbouring farms to San Cayetano are suffering badly from leaf rust which can easily be transferred to the plants at San Cayetano by the wind. To combat this, Rafael and Carmen have built more windbreakers to shield their plants and are applying their self-produced organic fertilisers.