Portillo FES

This is a variety created by Mr. Salvador Portillo in Santa Ana, El Salvador through cross-pollination (applying pollen from the flower of one variety to the pistils of another variety, creating a hybrid).

He worked on this variety for several decades and never left anything written down, so we do not know exactly which varieties make up this plant, though we do see the amazing results: a vigorous, productive plant, tolerant to leaf rust and with a great cup profile.

Mr. Salvador Portillo was also involved in the discovery of another variety, this one created by nature, the Pacas variety, a mutation of Bourbon.

Vsiting the Palo Campana area of the Santa Ana volcano, they noticed some Bourbon plants which had naturally mutated, they had become more compact, which made them more resistant to wind and more productive (more compactness, meaning less spacing between branches equals more cherries per tree).

They isolated these productive mutations and kept planting them in their farms. They wanted this variety analysed and gave samples and information to Mr. Alfredo Pacas, who at the time worked for the De Sola coffee exporting company. Mr. Alfredo Pacas sent the samples to a lab in Puerto Rico and this lab misattributed the discovery to him, naming the new variety the Pacas variety.

Mr. Portillo was a bit upset and vowed that before he died, he would have his own variety. He learned about cross-pollination and began work on his farm. A few decades later, he gifted the Ruffatti family some seeds of his variety which he rightfully named Portillo and since then, we have grown this variety in our farms.

We keep developing the variety, selecting the best trees to produce the next generation and we are now in the 3rd generation at Finca El Salvador, we call this line Portillo FES.

At Finca El Salvador, we are extremely happy to continue the work of a fellow Santa Ana coffee producer, improving on Mr. Portillo's great work. We find this variety to have very strong growth, a vigorous root and leaf system and a cup that feels full and rich; coming from a plant with such exuberant growth, it makes sense to get a cup which feels vibrantly alive.