Honduran Coffee Estate Single-Origin Varieties, Brand Recommendations, and Estate Introductions

Honduras Coffee Estate Single Origin Bean Varieties, Brand Recommendations and Estate Introduction

Honduras San Juancito Lot#1

Country: Honduras

Region: San Juancito

Altitude: 1450-1550 meters

Processing Method: Washed

Because Honduras sits in the tropics, San Juancito experiences relatively small temperature swings across the year. What passes for winter here is really the rainy season, and what passes for summer is really the dry season. In tropical regions, altitude shapes temperature far more than the calendar does. San Juancito's position at 1,239 meters above sea level keeps the air pleasantly cool in all four seasons. During the summer months (March to June), highs typically hover around 26°C while lows average about 18°C. In winter, the average high is 20°C and the average low around 14°C.

San Juancito's modern economy rests largely on agriculture, and most of that agriculture is small-scale coffee production. Its climate and elevation are exceptionally well suited to growing high-quality coffee. COMISAJUL, a cooperative of hundreds of smallholder coffee farmers in central Honduras, is based in San Juancito. Coffee there is grown on mountainsides at 1450-1550 meters, shaded by banana, avocado, and papaya trees. During the harvest, farmers pick the ripe cherries by hand, process them using the washed method, and dry them in the sun. The fermentation water left over from washing—rich in coffee skins and pulp—is collected and returned to the fields as fertilizer for the coffee trees. The resulting cup is remarkably clean, with high sweetness, very gentle acidity, and a distinct milk chocolate character.

Variety: Bourbon

Producer: COMISAJUL Cooperative Organization

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

Although San Juancito was historically famous for its mineral deposits, today it stands out for another reason: it lies within the buffer zone of La Tigra National Park, a rainforest ecosystem and Honduras's first national park. The park acts as an enormous natural reservoir, supplying drinking water to 500,000 residents of the capital.

Flavor: Clean, roasted nuts, milk chocolate

Honduran coffee is divided among six major producing regions spread across the western and southern parts of the country: Copan, Opalaca, Montecillos, Comayagua, Agalta, and El Paraiso. The average growing altitude is above 1,000 meters, and all of the coffee is Arabica. By grade, 69% of the crop qualifies as HG ("High Grown"), 12% as SHG ("Strictly High Grown"), and 19% as CS. The main varieties are Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, Villa Sarchi, and Lempira.

Bourbon coffee (French: Café Bourbon) comes from trees of the Bourbon cultivar of Arabica. Bourbon was first cultivated on Réunion Island, known as Île Bourbon before 1789, and from there French colonial ties carried it to Africa and Latin America. Today it remains one of the two most popular Arabica lineages in the world. Bourbon is typically grown at altitudes between 3,500 and 6,500 feet (1,062-1,972 meters).

For a hand-poured Honduras, use 15g of coffee at a medium grind setting (Fujiyama ghost tooth blade grinder, setting #4) in a V60 dripper with 88-89°C water. Start with a 30g bloom for 27 seconds, then pour to 105g and stop. Once the water level in the coffee bed drops to half, pour slowly up to a total of 225g, avoiding the tail end of the drawdown. Keep a coffee-to-water ratio of 1:15 and a total extraction time of 2:00.

In 2011, Direct Coffee introduced Finca Santa Marta from the Ocotepeque region, the champion estate of the 2006 C.O.E competition and one of Honduras's top coffee farms.

Property Characteristics: Farm 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 Musaceas
Water Source: Natural water sources from the Santa Marta farm

Coffee Characteristics: Coffee Properties

Variety: Catuai
Processing System: Washed and dried on drying beds
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 degree starts 60 seconds after first crack (Cinnamon roast)
Aroma/Flavor: Peanut, nuts, almond, licorice, hazelnut, jasmine fragrance, starfruit, kumquat, honey, sugarcane, brown sugar, maltose, frankincense

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

Complexity & Others: Well-balanced, medium to long aftertaste, smooth oily mouthfeel, very sweet finish, silky smooth without impurities

Direct Coffee Cupping Scores and Overall Comments

Cupping Date: 2011.03.05

Dry Aroma: 9
Wet Aroma: 8
Cleanliness: 9
Brightness: 9
Mouthfeel: 7
Balance: 9
Complexity: 7
Sweetness: 9
Acidity: 7
Aftertaste: 8
Cupping Score: 82

Overall Comments: After taking first place in the 2006 competition, Honduras Finca Santa Marta began working with foreign coffee buyers, which has allowed the estate to keep its quality consistently excellent. For anyone who enjoys the lively peanut and nuttiness that fills the room right after grinding, and the jasmine-tea-like impression that emerges as the cup cools, this mild, crisp, and delicious coffee stands among Honduras's finest estates with very few shortcomings.

Honduras San Vicente Processing Plant Pacas + IH90 Variety Washed

(Honduras San Vicente Edgardo Tinoco Pacas + IH90)

Region: Santa Barbara Province, Pena Blanca town
Processing Plant: San Vicente Processing Plant (Beneficio San Vicente)
Variety: Pacas + IH90 (one of the new varieties developed by the Honduran Coffee Association)
Grade: SHG
Altitude: 1300-1500 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 the country now counts 280,000 hectares of coffee plantations, most of them run by smallholder farmers whose plots are generally smaller than 3.5 hectares. These small farmers account for 60% of Honduras's coffee production. In 2011, Honduras's production overtook Guatemala's, and in 2012 it became the world's second-largest exporter of washed Arabica beans, behind only Brazil. It now ranks seventh in global production. Unlike the banana plantations once owned by two giant American conglomerates, 92% of Honduran coffee farmers are small independent producers. Coffee workers make up 12.5% of the country's eight million people, which makes coffee an extraordinarily important crop for Honduras. On the plantations, farmers pick the red cherries, process them by washed fermentation, and grade them according to market demands to satisfy consumers' different tastes. Honduras harvests three million bags of coffee each year, supplying high-quality coffee with distinctive flavors in both large volume and excellent quality. It has become the largest coffee-producing country in Central America and one of the world's top ten coffee exporters. The coffee industry sustains hundreds of thousands of families nationwide and provides one million jobs, making it a cornerstone of the Honduran agricultural economy.

Honduras's major producing regions stretch across the western and southern parts of the country, comprising six regions: Copan, Opalaca, Montecillos, Comayagua, Agalta, and El Paraiso. The average growing altitude is above 1,000 meters, and the coffee is 100% Arabica. By grade, 69% of the crop is HG, 12% SHG, and 19% CS. The main varieties planted are Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, Villa Sarchi, and Lempira.

Honduran coffee has always maintained high quality, and its prices are among the most competitive in Central America. The small, round, slightly bluish-green beans offer mild fruit acidity and a full-bodied, lightly sweet cup, working equally well in blends or as a single origin. They suit medium to dark roasting and are exported mainly to the United States, Germany, and Japan. Honduras has become the largest coffee-producing country in Central America, and production keeps climbing. In 2012, buoyed by favorable international coffee prices, that year's harvest exceeded 5 million bags—a significant jump over 2010—with both volume and quality improving steadily.

The largest coffee-producing province in Honduras is Santa Barbara, in the west of the country, northwest of Lake Yojoa. Over the past few years the region has developed into one of Honduras's most celebrated coffee areas. It also produced a famous agronomist, Mr. Angel Arturo Paz, who owns a washing station called San Vicente in the town of Peña Blanca, in the Santa Barbara province north of Lake Yojoa in western Honduras. He has been a consistent winner in Honduras's COE (Cup of Excellence) competitions. The San Vicente washing station buys coffee cherries from smallholder farmers in surrounding villages such as El Cielito, Las Flores, and El Cedral (each of these communities has at least 35 families and a school). The individual harvests are often too small to process as separate batches, yet the coffee from these villages never fails to impress with its high sweetness and fruity character.

San Vicente is a family-owned washing station with a strong local reputation. Through projects that help farmers improve cultivation techniques and upgrade production equipment, it is dedicated to close relationships with producers, and it rigorously controls every batch through cupping.

This San Vicente lot with Rainforest certification and SHG grade is a combination of smallholder farmers from the surrounding area who produce and market jointly. Because each small farmer averages only 1-2 hectares of coffee, the green beans from any single farm are too little to sell alone, so they are pooled for bulk marketing—something like a production cooperative or a coffee growers' association.

This lot from San Vicente represents smallholders from nearby villages such as Edgardo Tinoco—a collective of small coffee farmers. Plots are generally tiny, and the farmers cannot process and sell their green beans independently, so they sell to the washing station, which centralizes volume and sales.

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
Roasting Degree: Medium roast

World Cupping Champion Flavor Description

Hazelnut, pine, apricot

Honduras has never ranked among the top names in the specialty coffee market, yet the country enjoys natural advantages that are hard to beat—soil quality, altitude, and climate are all excellent. Neighboring Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua have likewise advanced their coffee production. What Honduras has lacked is infrastructure and name recognition among consumers. The country has been better known for commercial beans than for specialty lots, and even excellent quality could not command good prices. Many beans from the Copan and Santa Barbara regions were quietly relabeled as Guatemalan coffee and sold at Guatemalan prices. Worse still, there was long little awareness of the country's potential for specialty coffee. The core problem was that cherries received only minimal processing and were sold to washing stations while still wet, often molding and spoiling before they could be properly dried to 12% moisture content. Cherries that made it through drying anyway frequently ended up as defectively processed beans. With no price premium rewarding good quality, farmers, washing stations, and exporters had no incentive to invest in developing the coffee's potential. The result was a vicious cycle in which Honduran beans were pegged as mild blending coffee rather than single-origin or estate lots.

But things are different now. With support from USAID, Fintrac, and cooperatives such as La Central, vigorous promotion and education have taught Honduran farmers to grow better coffee and process it properly so the final flavor reaches its maximum potential. Backed by Fair Trade organizations funding processing equipment and raising farmers' professional knowledge, Honduran coffee has steadily climbed out of its slump to become one of the rising Central American coffees of the past couple of years.

Brewing Method

Recommended water temperature 88-92°C, grind setting 4 (Tiamo 700s HG0421 grinder), 20g of ground coffee.

1. Pour 50g of water to pre-infuse for 30 seconds.
2. Pour until the total reaches 300g, steep for 1 minute 20 seconds, then drain.
3. Remove the dripper at 2 minutes to finish.

Like every other coffee-producing country, Honduras is remarkably diverse, and no single description can cover it all. The largest producing region is Santa Barbara, with others including Copan, Ocotepeque, Lempira, La Paz, and El Paraiso in the south. Growing altitudes run from 1,500-2,000 meters, producing mainly Strictly High Grown (SHG) beans. Generally speaking, the Honduran coffees we have cupped recently show lower acidity and higher sweetness, with clear caramel notes—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 their coffee as coming from the Santa Barbara region of Honduras. Several coffee regions cross into Santa Barbara (a government department of the country). Some might argue it deserves its own description, but the more sensible approach seems to be listing growing regions according to official principles. There are also some excellent Pacas-variety lots from Santa Barbara which, in good condition, possess a unique and fruity character absolutely worth pursuing.

COPAN

The Copan region lies around the city of Copan in western Honduras, home to the country's most famous Maya ruins. The area borders Guatemala, and border regions like this one are a reminder to value the actual origin of the coffee rather than the producing country. Dividing coffee purely by country is somewhat arbitrary, because consumers often cannot tell whether beans come from Honduras or Guatemala (unfortunately). The Copan region sits just north of the Santa Barbara coffee region.

Altitude: 1,000-1,500m
Harvest: November-March
Varieties: Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai

OPALACA

The Opalaca region lies in the southern part of Santa Barbara, and also covers Intibuca and Lempira. It takes its name from 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, the estate is owned by Francisco Antonio Castillo David. Francisco began growing coffee in 1995, working together with 4 families on cultivation and post-harvest processing. Over the past two years, severe leaf rust has cut production by 50%, and everyone has had to work harder on disease prevention and stricter quality control.

This year, El Matazano kept up its excellent tradition and once again earned Cup of Excellence recognition. Francisco noted that the level of Honduras's competition entries is very high, which makes reaching the international judging stage—and winning—exceptionally difficult. Thanks to the close cooperation of the 4 family members, they were able to win again!

Aucafé purchased the same lot that competed, just 15 bags in total. We made a commitment to Francisco: as long as the estate maintains this level of quality, we are willing to keep buying long-term!

Basic Information:

Estate: El Matazano
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, with a final stage of sun-drying on greenhouse racks
This Batch Marking: Aucafé Direct Trade Coffee
Quantity: 15 bags

Cupping Flavor:

Honey, caramel sweetness, bright acidity with a sweet sensation, blackcurrant, pomelo, vanilla and herbal notes, chocolate, stone fruits

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

The lots described above are all washed coffees, and that is no accident. Washed processing is the traditional way of using water to handle the coffee cherry: the steps include floatation sorting, removing the skin and pulp, soaking and fermenting to strip away the mucilage, washing or further soaking, and finally drying and hulling. Because the beans spend extended time in water, chemical changes occur inside them that consume simple sugars while organic acids build up. Washed coffee therefore tends to preserve more of the bean's own inherent character while showing brighter fruit acidity and a cleaner, fresher profile.

FrontStreet Coffee has long championed the washed process for exactly these qualities. Our washed Yirgacheffe from the Guodingding Cooperative shows just how expressive a clean washed cup can be— jasmine florals and bright citrus acidity come to the fore, and after a medium-light roast the coffee takes on green tea and honey tones that suit pour-over, cold brew, and even espresso. On the other end of the spectrum, our Kenya lots showcase the double washed process, delivering an intensely juicy, sweet-and-tart cup reminiscent of cherry tomato, dark plum, snow pear, black plum, and yellow sugar.

If your palate leans toward the gentle chocolate-and-nut comfort of the Honduran coffees above, washed processing is the style to watch for: it keeps the cup clean and transparent so that sweetness and body speak for themselves. FrontStreet Coffee roasts every washed lot fresh to order, and we are always happy to share brew advice and origin stories so you can taste precisely what each washing station and terroir has to offer.