Jasal are a family business of over 100 years, with farms amongst the ApanecaIlamatepec mountain range, part of the Cordelliera de Apeneca. This volcanic range runs through the Ahuachapán, Santa Ana, and Sonsonate departments in the west of El Salvador, and is where many of the Cup of Excellence producing farms in the country are located.
Lucha Libre exploded across Latin America following the appearance of El Santo in Mexico in the 1942. The energetic aerial acrobatics performed by both luchadores tecnicos (good) and luchadores rudos (bad) produced many well-known fighters from El Salvador during its golden age during the 60’s and 70’s including El Apache, El Bucanero, and El Aguila Migueleña, and captivated many audiences. In El Salvador today you can still find Sunday wrestling matches, with smaller crowds then it’s hey-day, but stubbornly holding on.
JASAL as a group are renowned for their processing flexibility and eye for detail producing many top lots, but one of the most notorious is ‘The Fighters’, Los Luchadores. Pacamara (an El Salvadorian cross between Pacas and Maragogype) is gathered from three contributing farms so extra commitment and effort has to be taken to make sure the picking and processing are consistently in line with expectations. For Jasal, this is reflective of the effort that prizewinning luchadores put in and so the name was a natural choice for one of their competition coffees.
Cherry is processed at their centralised processing mill, Beneficio Los Cruces. An old building over 100 years old and described as an ‘antique house’ forms the central part of the mill, with researchers claiming Che Guevara hid there on his journey through Latin America. However, equipment is not that old and has since been renovated and kept up to date with the ability to process washed, semi washed, honey and natural coffees across patios, rasied beds and mechanical driers. Having a centralised mill means focussed staff can pay attention to quality on the farms as well as cherry coming in, process consistency and final cup profile.
