Many coffee companies brag about roasting “direct-trade” coffee. The Menendez family takes direct trade to another level. With nine award-winning farms in El Salvador, the Menendez family also processes, exports, and imports their own coffee into the United States. In an industry with a big disconnect between producers and consumers, the Menendez are bridging the gap. We’ve tasted coffees from their farms El Rosario and Las Delicias roasted by companies as esteemed as Crema, Greenway, and Kuma. The clarity and sweetness of these wonderfully delicate coffees leaves no doubt why the Menendez family has won the Cup of Excellence multiple times. Whether it’s sorting their coffees by lot and variety or experimenting with different processing techniques, the Menendez family are some of those rare producers who are pushing specialty coffee forward.
Bend, Oregon-based NW Collective offers a rare look behind-the-scenes look at the Menendez Family Coffee Farms. From break-taking panoramas to intimate portraits of the humans who farm the land, this ten-minute short film is mandatory viewing for anyone interested in where their coffee comes from.
I have to agree that there is a huge disconnect between coffee sellers and coffee growers. Most people have no idea where coffee comes from, how its grown and sourced and the kind of hardwork that goes behind all this.
It would be great if more companies can do this and even provide tours to such places. It would be amazing
I agree with you a coffee tour would be awesome, but it just sounds too hard to get into with so much of our coffee coming from outside the US.