Honduran Coffee Estate Single Origin Beans: Flavor Characteristics, Growing Regions, and Brewing Parameters

Honduran Single Origin Coffee: Flavor Characteristics, Growing Regions, and Brewing Parameters

Honduras divides its coffee-growing land into six major regions across the west and south: Copan, Opalaca, Montecillos, Comayagua, Agalta, and El Paraiso. The average growing altitude is above 1,100 meters. All the coffee is Arabica, with 69% classified as HG "High Grown," 12% as SHG "Strictly High Grown," and 19% as CS. Main varieties include Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, Villa Sarchi, and Lempira.

Bourbon coffee (French: Café Bourbon) is coffee produced from the Arabica Bourbon cultivar. Bourbon was originally cultivated on Réunion Island, which was called Bourbon Island (Île Bourbon) before 1789. It was later occupied by France and linked to both continental Africa and Latin America. Today it is one of the two most popular Arabica coffee varieties worldwide. Bourbon is typically grown at altitudes of 3,500 to 6,500 feet (1,062–1,972 meters).

Hand-poured Honduran coffee: 15g of coffee, medium grind (small Fuji ghost-tooth blade #4), V60 dripper, water temperature 88–89°C. First pour 30g of water, bloom for 27 seconds. Continue pouring to 105g, then stop. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half before pouring on. Slowly pour until reaching 225g total. Discard the tail section. Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15. Extraction time 2:00.

In 2011, Direct Coffee introduced Finca Santa Marta from the Ocotepeque region—the champion estate of the 2006 C.O.E coffee competition—putting it among Honduras' premier coffee-producing farms.

Property Characteristics

Farm Name: Finca Santa Marta

City: Tegucigalpita, Yoro

Region: Ocotepeque

Country: Honduras

Altitude: 1,250–1,480 meters

Farm Size: 59 hectares

Coffee Growing Area: 3–5 hectares

Annual Precipitation: 1,300 mm

Soil: Clay loam, sandy loam

Annual Production: 400 bags of green coffee beans

Certification: Organic

Shade Trees: Guama, Liquidambar, Oak, Cedar, Guajiniquel, and Musaceae

Water Source: Natural water sources from the Santa Marta Farm

Coffee Characteristics

Variety: Catuai

Processing System: Washed and dried on patios

Flowering Period: September – October

Harvest Period: Handpicked from January through March

Appearance: Screen 18

Awards: 2006 Cup of Excellence, 1st place

Top Jury Descriptions: Cupping roast level is 60 seconds after first crack begins (Cinnamon roast)

Aroma/Flavor: Peanut, nuts, almond, licorice, hazelnut, jasmine, starfruit, kumquat, honey, sugarcane, brown sugar, malt, milk fragrance

Acidity: Very fresh, clean, low acidity, citrus, berries, mint, low complexity, smooth acidity

Complexity and Other: Well-balanced, medium-long aftertaste, smooth oily mouthfeel, very sweet finish, silky smooth without impurities

Direct Coffee Cupping Scores and Overall Evaluation

Cupping Date: 2011.03.05

Dry Aroma: 9

Wet Aroma: 8

Clean: 9

Brightness: 9

Mouthfeel: 7

Balance: 9

Complexity: 7

Sweetness: 9

Acidity: 7

Aftertaste: 8

Cupping Score: 82

Overall Evaluation: Since winning first place in the 2006 coffee competition, Honduras Finca Santa Marta has cooperated with international coffee buyers, allowing its beans to maintain excellent quality. For anyone who enjoys the lively peanut-nut aroma after grinding and the jasmine-tea sensation as the coffee cools, its mild, crisp, delicious profile makes it a fine Honduran estate with few drawbacks.

Honduras San Vicente Processing Plant - Pacas + IH90 Variety, Washed

Region: Santa Barbara Province, Pena Blanca town

Processing Plant: Beneficio San Vicente

Variety: Pacas + IH90 (one of the new varieties developed by the Honduras Coffee Association)

Grade: SHG

Altitude: 1,300–1,500 meters

Certification: N/A

Flavor Characteristics: Almond, cedar, dark chocolate, dark fruits, plum, caramel, rich mouthfeel

Introduction

Coffee cultivation began in Honduras in 1804, and today there are 280,000 hectares of coffee plantations, predominantly run by small-scale farmers whose holdings are mostly under 3.5 hectares. These smallholders account for 60% of Honduras' coffee production. In 2011 Honduras' output surpassed Guatemala's, and in 2012 it became the world's second-largest exporter of washed Arabica beans, behind only Brazil. It now ranks seventh globally in production volume.

Unlike the banana plantations owned by large American corporate oligopolies, 92% of Honduran coffee farmers are small-scale individuals. Coffee-related workers make up 12.5% of the country's eight-million population, making coffee an extremely important agricultural crop. On the plantations, farmers harvest red cherries, process them with washed fermentation, and grade them to market demand so consumers' varied flavor preferences can be met.

Honduras harvests three million bags of coffee a year, supplying high-quality coffee with unique flavors. With both abundant quantity and excellent quality, it has become Central America's largest coffee-producing country and one of the world's top ten coffee-exporting nations. The Honduran coffee industry supports the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of families nationwide and provides one million job opportunities—an economically vital agricultural sector.

Honduras' major coffee regions are distributed across the west and south, in six areas: Copan, Opalaca, Montecillos, Comayagua, Agalta, and El Paraiso. The average growing altitude is above 1,100 meters. The coffee is 100% Arabica, with 69% classified as HG grade, 12% as SHG, and 19% as CS. Main varieties planted include Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, Villa Sarchi, and Lempira.

Honduran coffee has consistently kept high quality, and its prices are the most competitive in Central America. The beans are small and round with a faint bluish-green cast, in the mild fruit-acid category, with a full body and a slightly sweet flavor. They suit both blends and single origins, and take well to medium to dark roasting. They are exported mainly to the United States, Germany, and Japan.

Honduras is already Central America's largest coffee producer, with output rising steadily in recent years. In 2012, helped by favorable international prices, that year's production exceeded the five million bags of 2010, with volume up significantly and quality continuously improving.

The largest coffee-producing region in Honduras is Santa Barbara, in the west, northwest of Lake Yojoa. The area has grown into a famous Honduran coffee region over the past few years. It also produced a well-known agronomist, Mr. Angel Arturo Paz, who owns a processing plant—San Vicente—in the town of Peña Blanca, Santa Barbara Province, north of western Lake Yojoa. He has been a consistent winner in Honduras' COE (Cup of Excellence) competitions.

The San Vicente plant buys coffee cherries from small farmers in surrounding towns such as El Cielito, Las Flores, and El Cedral (each with at least 35 families and a school). Although the quantities are often too small to process these farmers' lots separately, the coffee from these areas has consistently impressed with high sweetness and fruity notes.

San Vicente is a family-owned processing plant with a strong local reputation. Through projects that help farmers improve cultivation techniques and production equipment, it builds close ties with producers and rigorously checks each batch by cupping.

This batch from the San Vicente plant, carrying Rainforest Certification and SHG grade, is the result of the plant combining coffee from surrounding small farmers for joint production and marketing. Because each smallholder's average plot is only 1–2 hectares, the green coffee produced cannot be sold individually—it can only be pooled into a batch, somewhat like a production cooperative or grower marketing group.

This San Vicente batch (Edgardo Tinoco) is produced by smallholder collectives from nearby villages. Generally, small farmers have very small plots and cannot process and sell green beans independently, so they sell to processing plants for consolidated sale.

Flavor Characteristics: Almond, cedar, dark chocolate, dark fruits, plum, caramel, rich mouthfeel

Rainforest Certification

Finca La Lesquinada

Region: Aldea Cerro Negro, Copan, Honduras

Altitude: 1650m

Processing Method: Natural process

Roast Level: Medium roast

World Cupping Champion Flavor Description: Hazelnut, pine, apricot

Honduras has never ranked among the top contenders in the specialty coffee market, yet it has real natural advantages—soil quality, altitude, and climate are all excellent. Neighboring Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua also have advanced coffee production. What Honduras has lacked is infrastructure and reputation in consumer markets.

The country is better known for commercial beans than specialty beans, so even excellent quality cannot fetch a good price. Many beans from the Copan and Santa Barbara regions are blended and sold as Guatemalan beans at Guatemalan prices. Nor have growers long been aware of their own potential for specialty coffee.

The main problem is that cherries receive only minimal processing and are sold to processing plants while still wet, often molding and deteriorating before proper drying brings moisture down to 12%. Cherries that pass through drying this way become defective beans. Without a price reward for good quality, farmers, processing plants, and exporters have little incentive to spend more on developing coffee's potential, and Honduran beans come to be seen as mild blending beans rather than single-origin or estate-specific coffees—a vicious cycle.

But things are different now. With help from USAID, Fintrac, and cooperatives such as La Central, farmers are being actively taught to produce good coffee and process it properly to maximize flavor; with Fair Trade funding for processing equipment and rising professional knowledge, Honduran coffee is gradually emerging from its slump and has become a rising Central American origin in recent years.

Brewing Method

Recommended water temperature 88–92°C, grind setting 4 (Tiamo 700s grinder HG0421), 20g of coffee powder:

(1) Pour 50g of water for pre-infusion for 30 seconds

(2) Continue pouring until the total reaches 300g, steep for 1 minute 20 seconds until drawdown

(3) Remove the dripper at 2 minutes to complete

Like other coffee-producing countries, Honduras is very diverse, and no single statement can cover all of it. The largest region is Santa Barbara, with others including Copan, Ocotepeque, Lempira, La Paz, and El Paraiso in the south. Growing altitudes range from 1,500–2,000 meters, mainly producing SHG beans. Generally, the Honduran coffees we have cupped recently have lower acidity and higher sweetness with distinct caramel notes, making them an excellent choice for espresso blends.

Honduras

Population: 8,250,000

Although HCAFE does not describe it as a coffee-growing region, many roasters label coffee from the Santa Barbara region of Honduras. Several growing areas cross into Santa Barbara (a government administrative division). Some might argue it deserves its own description, but the more appropriate approach seems to be listing growing regions according to official principles. There are also some excellent Pacas-variety batches from Santa Barbara that, under good quality conditions, possess a unique, fruity flavor absolutely worth pursuing.

COPAN

The Copan region lies around the city of Copan in western Honduras, most famous for its local Mayan ruins. The area borders Guatemala, and such regions remind us to value coffee's actual origin rather than its producing country. Dividing by country is somewhat arbitrary, since consumers have difficulty telling whether beans come from Honduras or Guatemala. The Copan region sits north of the Santa Barbara coffee zone.

Altitude: 1,000–1,500m

Harvest: November – March

Varieties: Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai

OPALACA

The Opalaca region covers the southern part of Santa Barbara as well as Intibuca and Lempira. It is named after the Opalaca mountain range that runs through the area.

Altitude: 1,100–1,500m

Harvest: November – February

Varieties: Bourbon, Catuai, Typica

Honduras - 2006 C.O.E Champion Estate - Finca Santa Marta

El Matazano Estate, located between La Paz and Macala, is owned by Francisco Antonio Castillo David. Francisco began coffee cultivation in 1995, cooperating with four families on cultivation and post-processing. In recent years, fierce leaf-rust disease cut production by 50%, so everyone could only work harder on disease prevention and stricter quality control.

This year El Matazano maintained its excellent tradition by winning Cup of Excellence recognition. Francisco noted that the competition level of Honduran entries is quite high, making it difficult to reach the international judging stage and win awards. Thanks to the close cooperation of the four family members, they were able to win again.

Au Café bought the same competition batch, with only 15 bags available. We promised Francisco that as long as the same quality level is maintained, we are willing to purchase long-term.

Basic Information:

Estate: El Matazano Estate

Owner: Francisco Antonio Castillo David

Estate Area: 3 hectares

Cultivated Varieties: Catuai

Altitude: 1500–1600 meters

Region: El Matazano, Tutule, La Paz, Honduras

Annual Production: 80 bags

Harvest Period: April 2015

Processing Method: Washed, dried on greenhouse racks in the final stage

Batch Label: Au Café Direct Relationship Coffee

Quantity: 15 bags

Cupping Flavor: Honey, caramel sweetness, bright acidity with a sweet sensation, blackcurrant, pomelo, herbal vanilla, chocolate, stone fruits

Manufacturer: FrontStreet Coffee
Address: No. 10 Bao'an Qian Street, Yuexiu District, Guangzhou
Ingredients: House-roasted
Shelf Life: 30 days
Net Weight: 227g
Packaging: Bulk
Taste: Mellow coffee beans
Roast Level: Roasted coffee beans
Sugar Content: Sugar-free
Origin: Honduras
Coffee Type: Other
Roast Degree: Medium roast

Honduras San Juancito Lot#1

Country: Honduras

Region: San Juancito

Altitude: 1450–1550 meters

Processing Method: Washed

Because Honduras lies in the tropics, San Juancito sees relatively small temperature swings throughout the year. What is called winter is really the rainy season, and what is called summer is really the dry season. In tropical regions, altitude affects temperature more than the timing of rainfall across the year. San Juancito's location at 1,239 meters above sea level keeps the temperature slightly cool all year: in summer (March–June) the high is often around 26°C and the low averages about 18°C, while winter's average high is 20°C with a low of about 14°C.

San Juancito's modern economy depends largely on agriculture, mostly small-scale coffee production, with a climate and altitude highly favorable for producing high-quality beans. COMISAJUL, a cooperative of hundreds of small growers in central Honduras, is based in San Juancito. Coffee is grown on mountains at 1,450–1,550 meters under shade from banana, avocado, and papaya trees. During harvest, farmers hand-pick ripe fruit, process it washed, then sun-dry it. The fermented water carrying coffee pulp and skin from washing is collected and used as fertilizer for the trees. This coffee has a very clean taste, high sweetness, very gentle acidity, and a milk-chocolate flavor.

Variety: Bourbon

Processor: COMISAJUL Cooperative Organization

San Juancito is a small village in central Honduras, 40 kilometers northeast of the capital, Tegucigalpa. The town falls under the jurisdiction of Francisco Morazán, which also includes Nuevo Rosario, Guacamaya, and Plan Grande, with a total population of about 1,400.

Although San Juancito was historically famous for its mineral deposits, it is now noted for lying within the buffer zone of La Tigra National Park—a rainforest ecosystem and Honduras' first national park. The park acts as a massive reservoir, supplying drinking water to 500,000 residents of the capital.

Flavor: Clean, roasted nuts, milk chocolate

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If you are new to pour-over and ask an experienced coffee person to recommend a practical, easy-to-learn, and good-looking dripper, chances are they will suggest the V60. Behind it is Hario, a company founded in Tokyo in 1921 and a well-known local glassmaker that began by designing and producing heat-resistant glassware for research institutions—its heat-resistant sharing jugs are still a popular pour-over companion. In 2004 Hario redesigned the V60's prototype into the shape we know today and named it after its distinctive 60° cone and "V" profile, releasing it a year later. Compared with other drippers, the cone and 60° angle force the water to run to the center before dripping into the server, extending the water's contact with the coffee and drawing out aroma and flavor more fully. The V60's single large hole lets water flow without obstruction, so the flow rate depends heavily on the pourer's control—and that control shows up directly in the cup.

Before the millennium, the market favored medium to dark roasts, and brewed coffee leaned toward a full body, high sweetness, and caramelized notes like chocolate, maple syrup, nuts, and vanilla, which siphon pots and flannel filters presented especially well; FrontStreet Blue Mountain No. 1 and FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling were the most popular specialty beans of that era. With the arrival of the third wave, drinkers began chasing a sense of place—Ethiopia's white florals, Kenya's berry acidity—and roasting shifted from dark toward light, while tasting moved from mellow and sweet to delicate and aromatic. The V60's fast extraction is a perfect fit for that shift, giving coffee a more three-dimensional aroma and lively acidity so that florals, fruit acidity, clean sweetness, and tea notes all come through. That is why floral, fruit-forward coffees such as FrontStreet Gedebdingding with its classic Yirgacheffe character, the tropical FrontStreet Huakui, the Geisha-flavored FrontStreet Strawberry Candy, and the raisin-toned FrontStreet Mozart all brew beautifully in a V60.

For pour-over, FrontStreet Coffee's light-roast lineup covers a wide range: Gedebdingding delivers citrus, berry, floral, and green-tea notes; Huakui bursts with strawberry, passion fruit, jackfruit, and lychee over a juicy, low-bitterness cup; the Panama Esmeralda Red Label Geisha brings jasmine, citrus, bergamot, and black tea; and the Kenya Cherry Tomato, from the Sika region at 1,550–1,750 meters, uses SL28 and SL34 with a 72-hour double washed fermentation and a light roast to give bright tomato and dark-plum acidity, snow pear and black plum mid-palate, and a clean finish with brown-sugar sweetness and a hint of green tea. If you prefer a richer cup, FrontStreet PWN Golden Mandheling is deep-roasted and low in acidity with herbal and dark-chocolate notes and a faint earthy edge; Brazil Queen Estate is low-acid and balanced with nut, cocoa, and caramel; Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 balances sweet, sour, and bitter with cream, caramel, chocolate, nuts, and honey; and the 2013 sun-dried Yunnan Typica is clean and balanced with citrus, caramel, nut, chocolate, and brown-sugar notes.