Honduras La Paz Region | The Flavor Profile of Finca Los Pinos Catuai SHG

Finca Los Pinos Catuai SHG from La Paz, Honduras: Flavor and Brewing

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2017 Honduras National Winner - Finca Los Pinos

The 2017 Honduras National Winner comes from Finca Los Pinos in the La Paz region, featuring the Catuai variety. Abel Mejia began working with his father in coffee farms located in La Paz when he was just a child. After getting married, his father gave him a very small farm to support his family. Abel Mejia is not yet 30 years old, but he discovered that the best way to increase income to support his small family was to improve coffee quality and sell it at better prices!

He tried every possible method to improve quality, learning to care for fruit trees more carefully, diligently managing the estate, and building solar drying houses. He understood that only by producing outstanding coffee quality could he attract long-term cooperative buyers. He eagerly sought new knowledge and focused on making his coffee stand out in fiercely competitive coffee competitions. In 2017, he participated for the first time and succeeded! He won the national competition!

Flavor Profile

Abel Mejia's story not only moves us, but more importantly, we can indeed experience delicate juice sensations, rich and full white chocolate, refreshing mint, and elegant, delicate vanilla sweetness in his coffee! Berries, vanilla sweetness, mint, white chocolate, and juice sensations.

Honduras Coffee Industry Transformation

Honduras has never ranked among the top names in the specialty coffee market, but Honduras has natural environmental advantages - soil quality, altitude, and climate conditions are all excellent. Neighboring Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua also have advanced coffee production. What Honduras lacks is infrastructure and insufficient reputation in the consumer market.

Honduras is more known for commercial beans rather than specialty beans. Even with excellent quality, they cannot sell at good prices. Many beans from the Copán and Santa Barbara regions are mixed with Guatemala beans and sold at Guatemala bean prices. For a long time, there was no awareness of their specialty coffee bean cultivation potential.

The main problem was that coffee cherries received only minimal processing and were sold to processing plants while still wet. This often caused coffee cherries to become moldy and damaged before proper drying to reach only 12% moisture content. Such cherries that passed through drying became defectively processed beans. Due to the lack of corresponding price rewards for good quality, coffee farmers, processing plants, and exporters had no incentive or motivation to increase costs to develop coffee cultivation potential, resulting in Honduras coffee beans becoming recognized as mild blended beans rather than beans from single origins or specific estates - a vicious cycle.

Rise of Honduran Specialty Coffee

But things are different now. With assistance from USAID, Fintrac, and several cooperatives like La Central, they vigorously promote and educate Honduran coffee farmers to produce good coffee, then properly process it to maximize the final coffee flavor. Additionally, Fair Trade funding has helped build processing equipment and increase coffee farmers' professional knowledge, allowing Honduran coffee to gradually emerge from its低谷 and become a rising Central American coffee in the past one or two years.

Honduras Coffee Regions

Honduras is as diverse as other producing countries, and I cannot cover everything with one statement. The largest producing region is Santa Barbara, with other regions including Copán, Ocotepeque, Lempira, La Paz, and El Paraiso in the south. Growing altitudes range from 1500 to 2000 meters above sea level, primarily growing Strictly High Grown (SHG) beans. Generally, the Honduras coffee we've recently cupped has lower acidity and higher sweetness with distinct caramel flavors, making it an excellent choice for espresso blends.

Coffee Details

Region: La Paz

Altitude: 1,650 M

Variety: Catuai

Processing: Washed

FrontStreet Coffee Brewing Recommendations:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Grind Size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 3.5

Brewing Method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, 15g coffee grounds. First pour 25g water, bloom for 25s. Second pour to 120g water, stop pouring. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops halfway, then continue pouring slowly until reaching 225g water. Extraction time approximately 2:00.

Analysis: Using a three-stage brewing method to clearly define the front, middle, and back-end flavors of the coffee. Because V60 has many ribs and drains faster, stopping the pour can extend extraction time.

Important Notice :

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