Honduran Coffee Bean Origin Characteristics and Flavor Profile - Honduras Lychee Orchid Coffee Roasting and Pour-Over Taste Description

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The coffee beans provided by FrontStreet Coffee can be divided into three main categories, based on the three major coffee growing regions: Asian coffee region, Latin American coffee region, and African coffee region. Whether in the online Taobao store or the Guangzhou physical store, you can see various types of coffee beans displayed. Today, FrontStreet Coffee mainly introduces this Honduras Lychee Lan coffee bean from the Latin American coffee region, which features surprising wine-like aromas and rich nutty chocolate flavors.

FrontStreet Coffee specializes in freshly roasted coffee beans. You can order a pour-over coffee for 30 yuan in the store, or you can directly purchase freshly roasted coffee beans. FrontStreet Coffee packages them uniformly in one-pound portions, ensuring they can be consumed within the optimal flavor period of the coffee beans. Some customers request grinding, and FrontStreet Coffee will grind according to the customer's intended use (pour-over or espresso), but it's recommended to consume it as soon as possible, as ground coffee beans lose their flavor quickly.

FrontStreet Coffee: Honduras Mocca Estate Lychee Lan Coffee Bean

• Country: Honduras
• Origin: Masaguara
• Estate: Mocca Estate
• Altitude: 1500-1700m
• Variety: Caturra, Catuai
• Processing: Refined washed + brandy barrel fermentation

Honduras Coffee Beans

Honduras is located in northern Central America, bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Gulf of Fonseca in the Pacific Ocean to the south. It shares borders with Nicaragua and El Salvador to the east and south, and Guatemala to the west. Mostly mountainous and plateau terrain with a tropical climate, it has mild temperatures and abundant rainfall, making it an ideal place for coffee cultivation.

Honduras has 280,000 hectares of coffee plantations, mostly small-scale farms with coffee gardens typically smaller than 3.5 hectares. These coffee plantations account for sixty percent of Honduras's total coffee bean production.

Honduran coffee beans have undergone many improvements in processing technology and transportation capabilities, achieving significant development in the coffee market over the past 20 years. In the coffee plantations, because the growing areas are mountainous, people pick coffee beans by hand and then carefully process them to produce higher-quality coffee beans. Honduras harvests three million bags of coffee annually, mostly specialty coffee beans, and has now become one of the world's top ten coffee-exporting countries.

Honduran Coffee Growing Regions

Honduras has six main coffee growing regions: Copán, El Paraíso, Comayagua, Opalaca, Montecillos, and Agalta. Honduran coffee beans are grown at average altitudes of 1000-1600m, with main varieties including Bourbon, Caturra, Typica, Catuai, and Pacas.

Honduran coffee beans are large in size, uniform in shape, and evenly colored with a lustrous appearance. For harvesting convenience, farmers prune coffee trees to not exceed 150cm in height, as taller trees would require ladders for picking, which is time-consuming and could damage the tree structure by bending branches. Since each coffee fruit ripens at different times, maintaining the quality of coffee beans requires manual harvesting, followed by selection of ripe red fruits. Coffee fruits on the same branch often require several weeks to complete harvesting.

Honduran coffee beans are characterized by rich, mellow flavors that are neither astringent nor acidic, with high body and aroma, making them quite distinctive. FrontStreet Coffee can bring out multi-layered flavors by adjusting different roasting levels of Honduran coffee beans.

Masaguara

Lychee Lan coffee beans come from Masaguara, a municipality located in the Intibucá department of Honduras, situated in the southern part of the Jess de Otoro valley. Surrounded by mountains and hills, it is mainly dedicated to coffee growers, who are the main drivers of the local economy. The areas corresponding to the valley are dedicated to growing basic grains and livestock. The origin of its name: According to Mr. Alberto Membre, the indigenous name Masaguara means "place where there are deer."

Honduran Coffee Varieties

Caturra is a natural variant of Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Its plant structure is not as tall as Bourbon, being more compact. Due to inheriting Bourbon's lineage, it has relatively weak disease resistance but higher yields than Bourbon. Although discovered in Brazil, Caturra is not suitable for growing there, so it wasn't widely cultivated in Brazil. Instead, it became popular in Central and South American countries such as Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, and Honduras. For Caturra cultivation, the higher the altitude, the better the quality, but correspondingly, the lower the yield.

When FrontStreet Coffee roasts, we can clearly feel that when adjusted to light roast, Caturra has obvious acidic aromas and overall brightness. With proper handling, sweetness can perform very well, but the coffee body is relatively lower compared to Bourbon, and the cleanliness of the flavor is somewhat lacking. Typically, Caturra has red berries, but in very rare areas, there are yellow Caturras, such as the very few yellow Caturras grown in Hawaii.

Catuai is a coffee variety that is an artificial hybrid of Caturra and Mundo Novo. Catuai has good resistance to natural disasters, especially wind and rain. Catuai trees are relatively low-growing. Compared to other coffee trees, Catuai fruits grow more firmly and are not easy to pick. The fruits come in both red and yellow varieties.

Honduran Coffee Bean Processing Method

The barrel fermentation method is borrowed from winemaking techniques. Its greatest impact on wine is that moderate oxidation through the barrel stabilizes the wine's structure and incorporates the barrel's aroma into the wine. It plays a similar role in the coffee fermentation process.

The barrel allows very small 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, smoothing the tannins while gradually transforming fresh fruit aromas into rich, complex mature wine aromas. The barrel's moderate hardness ensures good waterproofing and storage safety. Additionally, the barrel contains a certain amount of tannins. When coffee green beans are stored during the process, the barrel's tannins also penetrate into the green beans inside, giving the coffee layered complexity and rich wine aromas.

This refined washed brandy barrel fermented Lychee Lan coffee bean is first refined washed with freshly picked coffee fruits, then placed in brandy oak barrels for low-temperature fermentation for 30-40 days (temperature approximately 15-20°C), allowing the green coffee beans to absorb the barrel's flavors, and finally shade-dried.

After brandy barrel fermentation processing, the beans have soft lychee and honey sweetness, while also integrating full-bodied brandy aromas and oak barrel fragrances.

Roasting Recommendations

This Honduran coffee bean from FrontStreet Coffee has a distinct creamy aroma. To showcase the bean's characteristics, FrontStreet Coffee's roasters created two roast curves for comparison.

[Curve One] Bean entry temperature: 220°C, Yellowing point: 6'30", 151.6°C, First crack: 9'53", 183°C, Development after first crack: 1'40", discharged at 196°C.

[Curve Two] Bean entry temperature: 220°C, Yellowing point: 5'50", 152.6°C, First crack: 9'15", 183°C, Development after first crack: 2'10", discharged at 195°C.

Cupping Flavors

[Curve One] Flavors: Floral, berries, dark chocolate, honey, lychee. The palate shows distinct berry acidity, with subtle wine aromas emerging as temperature changes during slurping.

[Curve Two] Flavors: Cream, dark chocolate, honey, lychee, brandy. The palate is relatively full-bodied with obvious sweetness, and distinct wine flavors emerge as temperature changes during slurping.

Brewing Flavors

FrontStreet Coffee's brewing parameters: Hario V60 dripper, 90°C water temperature, 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, grind size (fine sugar: 80% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve).

Brewing method: Segmented extraction. Use 30g of water for 30-second bloom, then pour in small circular motions to 125g for segmentation. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g and stop pouring. When the water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper (timing starts from bloom). Extraction time: 2'00".

FrontStreet Coffee tries to control parameters and techniques consistently when brewing these two curves.

[Curve One] Entry shows berries, floral notes, honey, and gradually develops brandy wine aromas and creamy flavors as temperature changes. When hot, the berry fruit acidity is obvious but has a green astringency.

[Curve Two] Entry shows lychee, brandy, dark chocolate, cream, and as temperature changes, wine flavors and dark chocolate become distinct. The mouthfeel is full-bodied with obvious sweet aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee compares the two curves of Honduras Lychee Lan coffee beans. Although [Curve One] has decent sweetness and berry aromas with berry fruit acidity on entry, its cleanliness is somewhat poor with astringency, and the aftertaste is insufficient. While it has flavor, the obvious fruit acidity suggests that this bean's wine aromas are not fully showcased, proving that this bean is not suitable for light and fast roasting methods.

However, [Curve Two] performs better than [Curve One] in wine flavors and sweetness, with distinct flavors and thick, smooth mouthfeel. From entry to aftertaste, the wine aromas and dark chocolate flavors are obvious, with some honey sweetness.

Since [Curve One] showed fruit-dominant acidity with green astringency and the bean's flavors were not fully expressed, FrontStreet Coffee's roaster extended the development time in [Curve Two] to develop more flavors, making this bean's overall performance more balanced.

Important Notice :

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