Honduras Ocotepeque Region | Finca Santa Marta Organic Washed Catuai

Flavor Profile of Finca Santa Marta Organic Washed Catuai from Ocotepeque, Honduras

Honduras has never ranked among the top countries in the specialty coffee market, yet it enjoys real natural advantages: its soil, altitude, and climate are all excellent. Neighboring Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua run more advanced coffee operations, and what Honduras has long lacked is infrastructure and recognition in consumer markets. The country is better known for commercial beans than specialty beans, so even excellent quality rarely earns a good price. Much of the coffee from the Copán and Santa Barbara regions is passed off as Guatemalan and sold at Guatemalan prices, and for years the country itself underestimated its potential for growing specialty coffee.

The core problem has been processing. Coffee cherries often receive only minimal treatment and are sold to processing facilities while still wet, so they mold and spoil before they can be dried properly to the ideal 12% moisture content. Cherries that reach the drying stage in this state end up as defective beans. With no price reward for quality, farmers, mills, and exporters have had little incentive to invest in the crop, and Honduran coffee came to be seen as a mild blending component rather than a single origin or estate coffee, a vicious cycle.

Things have changed. With support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Fintrac, and cooperatives such as La Central, farmers are being trained and encouraged to produce quality coffee and to apply proper processing that makes the most of the final flavor. Fair Trade organizations have also funded processing equipment and built up growers' professional knowledge, letting Honduran coffee climb out of its low point and emerge in recent years as one of Central America's rising origins.

Like any coffee country, Honduras is diverse. Santa Barbara is the largest producing region, alongside Copán, Ocotepeque, Lempira, La Paz, and El Paraiso in the south. Growing altitudes range from 1,500 to 2,000 meters, and most of the crop is Strictly High Grown (SHG). Recent cuppings of Honduran coffee tend to reveal lower acidity and higher sweetness with distinctive caramel notes, which makes it an excellent choice for espresso blends.

Finca Santa Marta Estate Information

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 Musaceae (including banana plants)

Water Source: Natural water sources from the Santa Marta Farm

Variety: Catuai

Processing System: Washed and dried on patios

Flowering Period: September - October

Harvest Period: Handpicked from January through March

Appearance: Screen 18

Awards: 2006 Cup of Excellence, 1st place

Flavor Profile

Aroma/Flavor: Peanut, nuts, almond, licorice, hazelnut, jasmine, starfruit, kumquat, honey, sugarcane, brown sugar, malt, frankincense

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

Complexity and Other Characteristics: Well balanced, medium-long aftertaste, smooth oily mouthfeel, very sweet aftertaste, silky without impurities

Since winning first place in the 2006 Cup of Excellence, Finca Santa Marta has worked with international buyers, which has helped its beans hold on to their excellent quality. Anyone who enjoys the lively peanut and nutty aroma that rises after grinding, and the jasmine-tea character the coffee takes on as it cools, will find this mild, crisp, and delightful coffee to be one of Honduras' finest estates and one with few faults.

Brewing Recommendations

FrontStreet Coffee Recommended Brewing:

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Grind Size: Fuji Royal grinder setting 3.5

Brewing Method: Water-to-coffee ratio 1:15, using 15g of coffee. First pour 25g of water for a 25-second bloom. Second pour to 120g, then pause. Wait until the water level in the coffee bed drops to half before continuing to pour. Slowly pour until reaching 225g total. Extraction time approximately 2:00 minutes.

Analysis: This three-stage method clearly separates the front, middle, and back-end flavors of the coffee. Because the V60 has numerous ribs and drains quickly, pausing during the pour extends the extraction time that a washed processing benefits from.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

If a soft, sweet washed coffee like this one is what you reach for, FrontStreet Coffee's washed Yirgacheffe Gedingding Cooperative makes a natural companion. Grown by the Gedingding village processing team, it is a benchmark washed Ethiopian lot, and the washed process itself is what gives it its clarity: flotation, depulping, a soak-and-ferment stage that strips the mucilage, washing or a further soak, then drying and hulling.

That long soak in water drives chemical changes inside the bean and consumes much of its simple sugar, which lowers the coffee's sugar content while raising its organic acids. The upshot is a cup that keeps more of the bean's own aroma and shows the bright fruit acidity, cleanliness, and freshness typical of washed coffee. Jasmine florals and a bright citrus acidity lead the cup, and a medium-light roast adds green tea and honey notes underneath.

It is versatile enough for pour-over, cold brew, or espresso, so you can follow the same lot across several brewers and watch the profile shift.