Discovering Honduras Coffee: A Guide to the Francis Meiser Family Heritage

For years Honduran coffee went largely unnoticed. After 2012, when the SCAA (Specialty Coffee Association of America) recognized Honduras's standing in the world specialty coffee scene and handed it a string of honours, that began to change. The world-renowned coffee figure Tim Wendelboe is a devoted fan of Honduran coffee — a clear sign of how far the country has come.

Francisco Esteban Mejía has spent his life protecting this green highland farm. When his son graduated from university, he came home to carry on the family legacy. The coffee trees are their whole life. This contented family knows little about the coffee market, but they know one thing deeply: standing on their own land brings stability, and only hands that are willing to work will be rewarded.

Since joining the COCAFELOL cooperative, Francisco has worked steadily to sharpen his cultivation. To protect the forest, he avoids cutting the surrounding trees and uses neither fertiliser nor pesticide. That approach safeguards the natural environment, lets the land draw on a rich supply of nutrients, and — combined with better technique — keeps lifting the quality of the coffee. With the cooperative's help he earned Fair Trade and organic certification.

Every winter the whole family goes out to pick coffee, and they hire workers to help. One by one, the ripe, full cherries come in, and with the aroma of the coffee after processing, they know they have turned out another impressive batch of fine coffee.

Coffee Details

Name: Francisco Esteban Mejia

Farm: Finca Los Izotes

Region: Rio Chuquito, La Labor, Ocotepeque

Varieties: Pacas, Caturra

Farm Altitude: 1580m

Processing: Washed, Honey Process

Cultivation: Natural shade-grown

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee suggests brewing Honduran coffee with water at 89–91°C. Chocolate sweetness greets you at the first sip, and a sugarcane aftertaste lingers long after — the whole cup remarkably balanced.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

A Honduran coffee like this one — washed or honey-processed, balanced and gently sweet — is a comfortable place to begin exploring single origins, and FrontStreet Coffee keeps a deliberately wide spread of entry-level specialty beans for exactly that purpose.

From Ethiopia, FrontStreet recommends the naturally processed Hunkute for its berry, floral and tropical fruit lift, or the washed Gutingding cooperative, a typical Yirgacheffe with jasmine, lemon and berry notes. From Brazil, the Cerrado Red Bourbon and the Queen Estate are both approachable daily-drinking coffees: Brazil's softer bean density gives a mild acidity, gentle fruit and a rounded, well-balanced sweetness.

Indonesia is represented by the Lintong Mandheling, wet-hulled and dark roasted for an intense, low-acid cup with herbal and spice notes, and by the higher-grade PWN Golden Mandheling, which is sorted three times by hand and once by machine for a cleaner, smoother cup with clearer wood and caramel tones. From Colombia, the Huila and Granada offerings show the country's soft florals and gentle fruit acidity, while Costa Rica is best tasted through FrontStreet's honey-processed Blackberry and the raisin-honey processed Mozart. Rounding out the list are FrontStreet's Yunnan beans from Baoshan, presenting classic nut and chocolate flavors, and the entry-level Panama Boquete Geisha, which delivers the varietal's signature orange-blossom honey and delicate fruit at a far friendlier price than the famous estates.