Donaciano Martinez

In the beautiful municipality of Santa María Ozolotepec, in the community of Santa Cruz Ozolotepec, lies the farm El Sauce, run by Donaciano and his wife Josefa Reyes Soriano. The farm’s name comes from being in a privileged place near rivers and willow trees that are common in the area.

Donaciano says, “6 years ago, we didn’t t know that our coffee was specialty coffee. We didn’t know what we had. At that time, many local buyers paid the same for any wet or dry parchment coffee. But one day, Caravela came and the PECA educators showed us how the company could pay us more, so we started to discover the different qualities.” 

For Donaciano, growing specialty coffee is partly thanks to his family because coffee is his engine, his daily life, and knowing that there is a customer who likes it or needs it inspires him to continue. He works with his two sons, who help him with the farm activities and harvesting, and his wife oversees drying and hand-sorting.

On the farm, 90% of the coffee is Typica and 10% is Caturra. To process coffee, he does a 24-hour aerobic fermentation. After this, the coffee dries on concrete terraces or patios covered with palm mats at 35 degrees Celsius for a few days. For the next harvests, Donaciano would like to further improve the quality, produce more Micro-lots, and renovate some coffee plants, as this is his primary source of income.