Honduras Santa Barbara Region | San Vicente Processing Station | Miraflores Smallholder Washed SHG EP

Honduras Santa Barbara Region | San Vicente Processing Station | What are the flavor characteristics of Miraflores Smallholder Washed SHG EP?

San Vicente Processing Station is one of Honduras' most important processing facilities, led by the renowned local agronomist Mr. Angel Arturo Paz. It collaborates with small farmers from surrounding areas including El Cielito, Las Flores, and El Cedral, offering them appropriate assistance in coffee cultivation knowledge and related technology. During each harvest season it purchases coffee cherries from these smallholders, ensuring strict and orderly processing for every batch of green beans. The refined coffees are impressive in the market for their high sweetness and prominent fruit-like notes, and San Vicente consistently ranks among the top in every Honduras Cup of Excellence (COE) competition.

Honduras sits in Central America, with terrain made up largely of high mountains and deep valleys, an excellent environment for growing coffee. Fertile soil, high altitude (all growing areas lie above 1,100 meters), and a unique microclimate are the indispensable natural conditions for high-quality coffee. Honduras has roughly 280,000 hectares of coffee plantations, mainly run by small-scale farmers. Most small holdings are smaller than 3.5 hectares, and such smallholder plantations account for approximately 60% of the country's total coffee production. Today Honduras produces about 3 million bags a year, making it the second-largest producer in Central America and the tenth-largest coffee exporter in the world, and it is undoubtedly one of the emerging regions on the international coffee market. The varieties grown there are 100% Arabica, with 69% belonging to HG grade, 19% to CS grade, and 12% to SHG grade. Cultivated varieties include Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, Villa Sarchi, and Lempira. The main growing areas are spread across six regions in the west and south: Santa Barbara, El Paraiso, Copan, La Paz, Comayagua, and Olancho, each with average cultivation altitudes above 1,100 meters.

Coffee Details

Region: Santa Barbara Province

Growers: Small farmers from the Miraflores region

Processing Station: Beneficio San Vicente

Altitude: 1500m

Variety: NA

Processing Method: Washed

Grade: SHG EP

Flavor Description: Woody and nutty notes, fresh cedar, chocolate, cashew, clean and rounded...

FrontStreet Coffee Recommended Brewing

Dripper: Hario V60

Water Temperature: 90°C

Grind Size: Fuji grinder setting 3.5

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

Analysis: The three-stage method clearly separates the front, middle, and back-end flavors of the coffee. Because the V60 has many ribs and drains quickly, pausing the pour during brewing helps extend the extraction time.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Washed processing is exactly what gives a coffee like this one its clean, rounded clarity, and it is a style FrontStreet returns to often. During washed processing the cherries are floated, depulped, fermented in water to remove the mucilage, washed or soaked again, and finally dried and hulled. Because the beans spend so long in water, much of their simple sugar is consumed and organic acids increase, so washed coffees tend to keep more of the bean's own aroma while showing bright fruit acidity, a clean cup, and a fresh, crisp character.

FrontStreet's washed Yirgacheffe Gutiti cooperative lot is a textbook example: skilled processing brings out the maximum jasmine and bright citrus acidity, and a medium-light roast adds layers of green tea and honey on top. If you enjoy a juicier, more savory washed profile, FrontStreet's Kenya Small Tomato is a standout, built on the country's double-washed method that rinses and soaks the beans repeatedly to push the juice-like quality to the extreme, with notes of cherry tomato, smoked plum, snow pear, black plum, and yellow sugar. For a more classic, hazelnut-and-cream direction, FrontStreet's washed Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 delivers hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel with the variety's signature balance, in which no single flavor dominates or falls short.