Mapache Estate

Origin Story

Mapache Coffee is a fifth-generation company of coffee producers, owned and managed by Jan-Carlo and Sofia Handtke in the Apaneca Ilamatepec mountain range of El Salvador. Mapache Coffee employs over 150 locals year-round, who work together to build coffee nurseries, tend coffee plants on Mapache’s six farms, and process the perfectly ripe cherries that come from them. During harvest season, their staff swells to more than 700 people, making Mapache one of El Salvador’s largest employers in the coffee sector.

Mapache maintains a strong commitment to the well-being of the coffee forests, ensuring that every farm has a canopy protecting the coffee plants and soil. Their modern wet mill at Beneficio El Recreo uses limited amounts of water during the washing process, then recycles and reuses that water in the same process. All the remaining pulp from the wet milling process is incorporated back into the farms as compost, returning key nutrients to the soil. Jan-Carlo and Sofia are passionate about growing coffee, and they strive to make the process environmentally and economically sustainable in support of their local community.

(Source: Balzac Brothers, Mapache Coffee)