Say hello to a limited-edition micro lot coffee from El Salvador!

What is a micro lot?

A micro lot is a particular area of land acclaimed for its high-quality soil and climate, which creates amazing, unique flavours. Typically, a micro lot is farmed and grown in smaller quantities to retain these attributes.

Our coffee comes from a micro lot managed by The Renacer Coffee School in El Salvador. This school trains farmers in cost-effective, sustainable practices such as tree management and harvesting. Their long-term goal is to create restorative processes for land, benefiting the soil’s quality and improving the coffee’s yield. In its success, Renacer was awarded the ‘Best Project’ at the SCA Sustainability Awards in 2023!

The technical field school is led by Sigfredo Corado, a retired Agronomy Professor who has established business partners across the Los Naranjos Group farms (Los Angeles & Finca Noruega) and a wet mill. At Renacer, he leads a team of six field technicians to teach best farm practices.

A class is held twice a month on the Finca Noruega farm to gain practical knowledge and experience. This area is 43 Manzanas (blocks/units) planted with multiple varieties of coffee such as bourbon and gesha. Students use these test plots to apply their new techniques before implementing them on their own farms. They are taught the ‘4 R’s’ throughout the academic year regarding soil health: the right source, the right dose, the right place and the right moment.

How has this school benefited farming across the region?

This school has shared essential knowledge in sustainable practices, which has improved the local farmers’ livelihood and the value of coffee. During the first year of this program, the hard work of ten students led to the Los Naranjos group centralising their wet milling to be more convenient for all communities. Its new location of Beneficio San Rafael, nestled between the two hills of El Pilon and Cerro Aguila at 1450 masl, has helped producers create consistent, profitable coffee.

By the end of the 2019 harvest, they had elected a committee of four producers from the group to focus on commercialising the coffee and how-to cup. This allowed them to follow the entire process from bean to cup and finally exportation, giving them better insight into the value of their coffee. They then pass this knowledge on to the broader group, gaining transparency across the board.

After graduation, the students become Renacer ambassadors and return to their communities to improve farming practices. Some are selected to distribute information to other producers during the annual cycle. Renacer field officers who work with the groups support this, with 350 producers currently delivering coffee are part of this group.

How is this coffee processed?

After being selectively harvested, the cherries are taken to the wet mill at Beneficio San Rafael. The fruit is logged and recorded before being floated to separate the unripe fruit. The cherries are cleaned before being pluped and transferred to drying beds. It is then sundried for five and a half hours every day before being covered; this process is repeated for 20-30 days. Once complete, the dried beans are packaged, stored, and shipped to us at Two Chimps HQ to turn into our limited-edition brew!

Where does the name come from?

Like all great things, we have micro chimp Felix to thank for this name! He is currently in the phase of trying to turn everything into a rocket, whether that’s an old cereal box or a fairy liquid bottle. Who knows, maybe he can turn a Two Chimps coffee bag into a rocket…