The El Salvador border lands of North East Chalatenango are home to small owned family coffee farms, usually a handful of hectares in size, where the coffee trees grow under gentle shade in the mountains that rise to the high-altitude border with Honduras. In this thinner mountain air the coffee has a unique profile very different from the more Pacific influenced growing zones to the west.

Of these farms Vincente Rafael Diaz farm El Derrumbo is typical of the area. Renamed ‘El Derrumbo’ a few years ago after a landslide hit the area, the small farm grows a selection of cultivars including El Salvador’s very own Pacamara. This is a bold beaned hybrid between the cultivars Pacas and Maragogype developed in El Salvador. It's distinctive flavour profile and syrupy finish set it aside from other Arabica cultivars and it's become so popular with farmers in Chalatenango, its as if the region is its spiritual home.