Honduran Coffee Bean Story - Flavor Profile and Brewing Guide for Honduras Sherry Barrel Processed Coffee Beans

With the arrival of the third wave of coffee, increasingly innovative coffee processing methods have emerged. This year, the most popular processing methods are undoubtedly anaerobic and barrel fermentation. FrontStreet Coffee currently has several anaerobic and barrel-processed coffee beans that are very popular among customers in our store. The barrel fermentation processing method for coffee beans is a new technique that has emerged only in recent years, offering unprecedented flavor and texture experiences. The current development direction of the coffee market is gradually moving toward innovation in processing methods, and barrel processing is顺应ing this trend. In the future, FrontStreet Coffee will continue to discover and evaluate unique coffee beans to provide everyone with objective data references.

Barrel Fermentation Principle

The inspiration for FrontStreet Coffee's Honduras coffee bean barrel fermentation method comes from wine fermentation technology. During the coffee fermentation process, barrels allow minimal amounts of air to pass through the barrel walls, penetrating into the barrel to cause moderate oxidation of the coffee beans. The appropriate amount of oxygen entering also accelerates coffee fermentation, smooths tannins, and gradually transforms fresh fruit aromas into rich and varied mature wine fragrances. The moderate hardness of the barrel ensures good waterproofness and storage safety. Additionally, the barrel contains a certain amount of tannins. When green coffee beans are stored during the process, the barrel's tannins also penetrate into the green beans inside, giving the coffee layered characteristics and rich wine aroma. Some time ago, FrontStreet Coffee acquired a batch of Frontsteet Honduras Sherry Whiskey Barrel-processed beans. When opening the green bean bag, we immediately smelled rich vanilla cream and wine aromas.

FrontStreet Coffee: Honduras Moca Manor Sherry

Region: Intibucá Department
City: Masaguara
Estate: Moca Manor
Altitude: 1500-1700m
Varieties: Caturra, Catuai, Pacas
Processing: Fine washed whiskey sherry barrel fermentation

Frontsteet Honduras Coffee

Honduras is located in northern Central America, bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, the Gulf of Fonseca in the Pacific to the south, Nicaragua and El Salvador to the east and south, and Guatemala to the west, consisting mainly of mountains and plateaus. Honduras has 280,000 hectares of coffee plantations, primarily small coffee farms, with most coffee plantations being smaller than 3.5 hectares. These coffee cultivation areas account for sixty percent of Honduras's total coffee production.

Honduras has 6 main coffee growing regions: Copan, El Paraiso, Comayagua, Opalaca, Montecillos, and Agalta. The average growing altitude ranges from 1000-1600m, with main varieties including Bourbon, Caturra, Typica, Catuai, and Pacas. However, Moca Manor is not located among these 6 coffee regions but comes from Masaguara, a municipality in Honduras's Intibucá Department, located south of the Jessde Otoro valley, surrounded by mountains and hills. It is primarily dedicated to coffee growers and serves as the main economic driver of the local area. The regions corresponding to the valley are dedicated to growing basic grains and livestock. The origin of its name: According to Mr. Alberto Membre's "Indigenous Place Names," Masaguara means "place of deer."

The Development of Honduras Coffee

In fact, Honduras coffee did not have a smooth beginning. Compared to other Central American countries like Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, its coffee development was considerably delayed.

The main reason for this was Honduras's lack of transportation infrastructure connecting production areas with ports, which hindered the development of Honduras's coffee industry. However, after 1970, the government specifically created an official institution for coffee: Instituto Hondureño del Café (IHCAFE), dedicated to improving coffee quality. Coupled with the fact that coffee trees can be grown throughout Honduras, the country's coffee production surpassed Costa Rica and Guatemala in 2011!

However, Honduras currently faces challenges with leaf rust disease and global warming, which are major issues for the country.

Honduras Coffee Regional Flavors

Honduras has six major coffee growing regions, mainly located in the western and southern areas: Copán, Opalaca, Montecillos, Comayagua, Agalta Tropical, and El Paraíso. Among these, three are main producing regions:

Montecillos: The highest altitude estates in Honduras, with bright and richly layered coffee flavors, full of intense fruit and sweet aromas, with citrus notes.

Copán: Copán coffee beans have chocolate flavors, rich texture, and high sweetness.

Agalta Tropical: Coffee beans from this region have balanced honey sweetness and acidity, with chocolate notes.

Generally speaking, Frontsteet Honduras coffee has relatively high body and sweetness, with fruity notes, but sometimes also carries nut and toffee aromas, making it a multi-layered coffee.

Honduras Coffee Grading

Honduras coffee uses a grading system based on altitude and defect rate. The defect rate grading is divided into American and European standards, which we won't elaborate on here. The altitude grading is as follows:

Strictly High Grown (SHG): Over 1200 meters.

High Grown (HG): Over 1000 meters.

Central Standard (CS): Grown at altitudes over 600 meters.

Generally, a coffee bean's information will display both altitude grading and defect rate grading to indicate the coffee's quality level. In addition to this grading system, recent specialty coffee competitions held in Honduras have also contributed to producing higher quality specialty coffees!

Coffee Varieties (Caturra, Catuai, Pacas)

Caturra is a natural variant of Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Its plant is not as tall as Bourbon, being more compact. As it inherits Bourbon lineage, its disease resistance is relatively weak, but its yield is higher than Bourbon. Although discovered in Brazil, Caturra is not suitable for growth in Brazil and therefore was not cultivated on a large scale there. Instead, it became widely popular in Central and South America, such as Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

Catuai is a coffee variety that is a man-made hybrid of Caturra and Mundo Novo. Catuai has better resistance to natural disasters, particularly wind and rain resistance. Catuai trees are relatively low-growing, and compared to other coffee trees, Catuai fruits grow more firmly and are not easy to harvest. The fruits come in both red and yellow varieties.

Pacas is a natural variant of Bourbon. Like other widely planted low-Bourbon varieties, Pacas is a single-gene mutation. Its main advantage is that the coffee tree is small in size with higher yield potential, and can be intercropped with other plants like fruits, thereby increasing coffee cherry yields. This variety was discovered in 1949 on a farm belonging to the Pacas family in the Santa Ana region of El Salvador. In 1960, the Salvadoran Coffee Research Institute (ISIC) began a pedigree selection project for Pacas (selecting individual plants through continuous generations, also called single-plant selection). It is popular in Central America and widely planted in El Salvador, accounting for about 25% of its production. In 1974, the Honduras Coffee Research Institute introduced this variety and began cultivating it in Honduras.

Processing Method

The Frontsteet Honduras Sherry coffee beans that FrontStreet Coffee acquired use fine washed whiskey sherry barrel fermentation. Freshly harvested coffee cherries first undergo fine washing, then are placed in sherry-aged barrels for low-temperature fermentation for 30-40 days (temperature approximately 15-20°C), followed by shade drying.

Sherry barrels are those used by sherry wineries in the whiskey industry for aging. The sherry production process involves the Solera System aging procedure. This process refers to the method of mixing and aging sherry of different vintages after the sherry is fortified, which is also the unique characteristic that forms sherry flavor.

Coffee beans fermented in sherry barrels naturally carry sherry wine flavors, creating an intoxicating and unique taste that has been very popular in recent years.

Coffee Bean Roasting

When FrontStreet Coffee receives these barrel-fermented coffee beans, they are still green beans, and FrontStreet Coffee performs the roasting process. During roasting, it's important to note that Honduras-produced coffee has traditionally had rich sweetness and moderate texture but lacks appealing entrance aroma. Processing plants developed the barrel fermentation method to increase aroma. Therefore, to better express the characteristics of these beans, FrontStreet Coffee chose light roasting as the direction. At the same time, to achieve better flavor expression, FrontStreet Coffee roasted two different curves for comparison. This is the necessary path FrontStreet Coffee takes with every new coffee bean acquisition. Roasting not only tests the roaster's understanding of the bean's origin but also requires cupping and pour-over tasting sessions to determine if the roast curve is appropriate. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee often has situations where a single cup of coffee requires multiple evaluation items. Although time-consuming, FrontStreet Coffee considers this necessary. Without repeated trial processes, FrontStreet Coffee will not easily list a coffee bean for sale.

Roast Curves

Curve One
Charge temperature: 190°C, Yellowing point: 5'45", 151.8°C, First crack: 9'07", 184.2°C, Development after first crack: 2'10", Discharge at 195°C.

Cupping flavors: Vanilla, honey, citrus, cream, wine aroma finish, smooth texture, rich flavors, overall balance.

Curve Two
Charge temperature: 190°C, Yellowing point: 5'30", 150.8°C, First crack: 8'38", 184.3°C, Development after first crack: 1'40", Discharge at 196°C.

Cupping flavors: Vanilla, cream, syrup, chocolate, fermented wine aroma, rich aroma, thick texture, obvious sweetness, but astringency appears when temperature drops.

After the cupping session, FrontStreet Coffee also conducts pour-over tasting to evaluate the flavors of both curves. FrontStreet Coffee's pour-over parameters are: Hario V60 dripper, 90°C water temperature, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, EK43s setting 10 grind (Chinese standard #20 sieve 80% pass rate). The grind setting varies for each coffee bean due to factors like variety, altitude, processing method, roasting, etc. Therefore, when FrontStreet Coffee gets a newly roasted bean, we first sieve it to determine the appropriate pour-over grind.

FrontStreet Coffee uses a segmented extraction pour-over method, which is a three-stage water pouring technique. Pour 30g of water for bloom for 30 seconds, second stage circular pour to 125g, when water level drops to just before exposing the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g, total time 2 minutes (including bloom).

Frontsteet Honduras Coffee Bean Barrel Process Flavors:

Curve One
Entrance has vanilla and cream aromas, citrus and berry acidity, mid-section has almond and dark chocolate flavors, finish has maple sweetness, aftertaste is vanilla aroma, distinct flavors, smooth texture.

Curve Two
Entrance has rich vanilla cream aroma, mid-section has gentle citrus acidity, finish is pomelo flavor, syrup sweetness, slightly bitter aftertaste. Thick texture but with slight astringency, slightly less clean.

FrontStreet Coffee compared the two curves. Although Curve Two performs better in aroma, texture, and sweetness, with some syrup-like notes at entrance, it has slightly less cleanliness and astringency, with a somewhat bitter aftertaste. Additionally, the flavors are relatively single, making it feel somewhat monotonous when drinking. Curve One, while slightly weaker in aroma and sweetness compared to Curve Two, has distinct flavors and smooth texture. From entrance to aftertaste, it maintains good vanilla and cream aromas, and the flavors remain relatively stable from hot to cold temperatures without other off-flavors. Finally, FrontStreet Coffee determined Curve Two as the roast curve for this batch of Frontsteet Sherry coffee beans. Note that this is for this specific batch of coffee beans - FrontStreet Coffee evaluates every new batch through the above processes. Considering that each batch has differences, parameters used for the previous batch may not be applicable to the next batch.

In addition to V60 dripper brewing, FrontStreet Coffee also tried using KONO dripper and Japanese-style iced pour-over for flavor comparison.

KONO

Since this Frontsteet Sherry bean is generally well-balanced with obvious sweetness, FrontStreet Coffee decided to use the KONO dripper for brewing. Because the KONO dripper has shorter ribs, the filter paper can cling closely to the dripper wall after absorbing water. Since the exhaust space is restricted, air flow is also limited, which increases the water absorption time of coffee particles and slows the flow rate. This allows the coffee grounds to be steeped, resulting in more balanced extracted coffee.

Parameters: Water temperature 90°C, coffee-to-water ratio 1:15, BG #5F grind (Chinese standard #20 sieve 80% pass rate), use double the coffee weight in water (30g) to wet the coffee bed for bloom, end bloom when the coffee bed changes from wet to dry, time 30 seconds, small water flow center pour to 125g for segmentation, when water level drops to just before exposing the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g to finish, remove dripper when water level drops to just before exposing the coffee bed. (Timing starts from bloom) Extraction time: 2'00"

Flavors: Entrance has gentle citrus acidity and purple fruit flavors, mid-section has toffee and vanilla sweetness, aftertaste has wine and chocolate flavors.

Japanese-Style Iced Pour-Over

The so-called Japanese-style iced pour-over, simply put, involves adding ice cubes to the sharing pot, brewing with hot water, and coffee drips onto the ice cubes for rapid cooling, achieving an iced effect. FrontStreet Coffee uses V60 for brewing.

Parameters: Water temperature 90°C, coffee-to-water ratio 1:10 (ratio of hot water to coffee), EK43s setting 10 grind (Chinese standard #20 sieve 80% pass rate), add 100g of ice cubes to the sharing pot. Coffee amount 15g, use double the coffee weight in water (30g) to wet the coffee bed for bloom, end bloom when the coffee bed changes from wet to dry, time approximately 30 seconds, small water flow center pour to 100g for segmentation, when water level drops to just before exposing the coffee bed, continue pouring to 150g to finish, remove dripper when water in the dripper has completely filtered through. (Timing starts from bloom) Extraction time: 1'40''

Flavors: Aroma has fermented and tropical fruit notes, entrance has citrus, vanilla, and nut flavors, oolong tea aftertaste.

Similarly, Frontsteet Honduras Lychee Orchid, another barrel-fermented coffee bean from the same estate, how does its flavor differ from Sherry? After comparison, FrontStreet Coffee found that Frontsteet Lychee Orchid appears more delicate and fresh, while also possessing chocolate and honey-like sweetness. The entrance has a lychee-like clean sweetness - sweet yet clear, mixed with brandy wine aroma, with persistent sweetness in the later section. Beans processed through brandy barrel fermentation have gentle lychee and honey sweetness, while also incorporating full-bodied brandy wine aroma and oak barrel fragrance.

FrontStreet Coffee - Honduras Moca Manor Lychee Orchid

Country: Honduras
Origin: Masaguara
Estate: Moca Manor
Altitude: 1500-1700m
Varieties: Caturra, Catuai
Processing: Fine washed + brandy barrel fermentation

Coffee Bean Processing Comparison

Both of FrontStreet Coffee's coffee beans undergo fine washing before barrel fermentation processing. The difference is that Frontsteet Sherry coffee beans are placed in whiskey oak barrels that have aged sherry wine for low-temperature fermentation for 30-40 days (temperature approximately 15-20°C), while Frontsteet Lychee Orchid coffee beans are placed in brandy barrels for fermentation processing. Finally, they undergo shade drying until the moisture content reaches about 11%.

Brandy Oak Barrel Fermentation

Honduras barrel fermentation (brandy oak barrels): After coffee cherries are harvested, they first undergo fine washing, then are placed in brandy oak barrels for low-temperature fermentation for 30-40 days at approximately 15-20°C, followed by shade drying.

Roasting Recommendations

To better highlight the flavors of this Frontsteet Lychee Orchid bean and achieve balanced overall performance, FrontStreet Coffee's roasters chose light roasting. Charge temperature: 220°C, Yellowing point: 5'50", 152.6°C, First crack: 9'15", 183°C, Development after first crack: 2'10", Discharge at 195°C.

Pour-Over Coffee Flavors:

Entrance has lychee, brandy, dark chocolate, and cream. As temperature changes, the wine and dark chocolate flavors become more pronounced, with rich texture and obvious sweet aftertaste.

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