Nelson Ernesto Flores

Early this year, Miguel Vicuña, one of Sweet Bloom’s green buyers, had the chance to cup Nelson Flores’ coffee. He identified something special there. The next day Miguel went to visit Nelson on his farm, Finca Las Mercedes, in Chalatenango, El Salvador. After the visit, Miguel came away with a sense that Nelson is an extraordinary producer, someone to watch and to stay connected to, because he is growing exceptionally beautiful coffee.

Nelson’s family has three farms located In the beautiful Caballeros community nestled in La Palma, Chalatenango, surrounded by a dense pine forest and clouds. In addition to Finca Las Mercedes, he and his wife Elsy also manage farms belonging to his uncle and mother, Blanca, Marina Reyna. She is a well known and respected producer in the area.

For the past 15 years, Nelson has been involved in coffee, first supporting his mother, and now running his farm. 7 years ago, he started focusing on specialty coffees when he and his mother saw that by selling quality coffee, they could improve their incomes. Early on, their coffees started in the AA quality range, Now they are producing some stellar AAA and Microlots. Their total production is now sold as specialty coffee to Caravela Coffee, one of the importers we work with.

He tells how his main motivation to work in coffee has been his family. Nelson recalls, “We had a small plot of land, we planted grains, mostly corn and beans – that’s how we started to work the land years ago. And where Finca Las Mercedes is now, which is my farm, it was a pasture area for grazing cattle. Today it’s a renovated area with trees and coffee. Today, I feel more economically supported thanks to coffee cultivation; this allows me to improve my family’s quality of life and progress.”

On their farm, Nelson and Elsy grow different varieties as follows: 50% Pacamara, 30% Bourbon, and 20% Catuai varieties. Nelson oversees the farm’s agronomic and administrative management, his wife Elsy helps him with processing and drying, and they hire pickers during the harvest peak and for specific activities during the off-season months.

To produce quality coffees, Nelson comments, “We start with selective harvesting, only picking cherries at their optimum point of ripeness. Due to the distance and lack of access roads, the harvested coffee cherries are left to rest for approximately 15 hours in clean bags on the farm. The next morning the coffee is pulped, and then the wet parchment coffee with all the mucilage is transferred to clean bags and sacks, to be transported on horses a few kilometers down the hill, where a pick-up waits to transport the coffee to the fermentation piles.” Therefore, fermentation occurs in two phases, first in cherry for 15 hours, and after being pulped for 24 hours more. Once this process is completed, this coffee is washed and transferred to raised beds, where 100% of the coffee dries for an average of 15 days.

Nelson and his family focus primarily on washed coffees but are starting to produce honeyed and natural coffees as well. They are doing this in small quantities to make sure they can maintain quality.

All relationships are unique in how they begin and how they develop. We are hopeful that Nelson and Elsy will continue to find success in coffee production and that we can become partners with them in sharing their beautiful coffee. Time will tell.

Transparency Information

1. Spot Purchase

Early in Sweet Bloom’s history, we worked closely (and still do) with some of the best importers in the US to purchase our coffee. These importers have similar values to Sweet Bloom and a genuine care for those they purchase coffee from. Most of these importers hold “Spot” coffee which means they’ve purchased a given amount of coffee from a specific producer or co-op and import it to their warehouses as inventory. Many of our first coffees were purchased from importers as spot coffee. A few coffees, especially from East Africa, are still purchased this way.

2. Contract Purchase

As Sweet Bloom grows, most of our coffee purchases have transitioned away from spot to contracted. Contractual buying, basically means we commit to purchase a given amount of coffee at an agreed upon price, from a specific producer or co-op, before the coffee leaves the country of origin. Contracted coffee is the beginning of what we view as a relationship coffee. These purchases still rely heavily on importers, but there is sustainability built in as we show a level of commitment to a given lot, and the importer can make a more confident purchase from the producer.

3. Repeat Purchase

During Sweet Bloom’s second year as a roastery, we began to purchase lots again, from producers we bought from in our first year. We view a repeat purchase from a given producer or co-op as a significant step towards building an ongoing relationship. The bulk of coffee we purchase now from Central and South America are at a minimum, second time purchases. For example, 50% of our Hometown Blend comes from two growing groups (Timana, and Los Naranjos in Colombia). We rotate seasonal lots from these two groups, and have been doing this for many years. The Timana and Naranjos groups can be confident that we’ll continue to purchase large quantities from them every year. They can rely on our repeat purchases, and we can plan on getting great coffee.

4. Visits

As we’ve stated from the beginning, the heart of Sweet Bloom is to connect, in meaningful ways, the producer with the end consumer. Our dream from the beginning was to invite the producers we do business with to Sweet Bloom, and we’ve had the privilege to host a number of producers over the years. These visits have been a special time for the producer to share their story with our retail and wholesale customers, and to experience their coffee being brewed and sold in some of the best cafes in Denver. These visits have also been deeply meaningful to our staff, and our customers who can now put a face to the name on our bags. Sweet Bloom is also committed to visiting the producers we work with and will be increasing these efforts in the years to come as our team grows.

5. Payment & Ongoing Projects

Ultimately, our intention is to build on our relationships with producers that go beyond visits, in ways that are mutually beneficial. One project that we are proud of and will continue to replicate is pre-paying for our coffee. This allows the producer to have access to funds at a time when there is a large outflow of cash to pay pickers and increased expenses due to processing.

6. Intentional Purchase

Building genuine relationships with producers is hard. With each harvest, changing markets, competition from other buyers etc, the best of intentions can sometimes turn into what feels like failure. It can be messy and disappointing. At times, we’ve let down producers that we work with, and at other times, we’ve been let down. But we’ve also built relationships that are deeply meaningful, mutually rewarding and long lasting, and we will continue to work towards that end!

For us, a relationship that falls into this final category means we've worked together with this producer for many years. We've visited them, they've visited us, and we've built a relationship that goes beyond a financial transaction. We have an understanding of:

1) challenges faced from one year to the next
2) sustainability practices on the farm
3) how the farmer is caring for their staff
4) ways in which we can benefit projects the farmers have implemented on the farm and in the community

We also consider this stage as a stepping stone into the future of how we purchase coffee and build relationship. We are working on a green buying strategy where we set prices directly with producers that far exceed Fair-trade prices and meets our understanding of a living wage for the producer and those working under them.

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