Honduras Barrel-Aged Coffee Beans Sherry-Flavored Coffee Beans Pour-Over Flavor Characteristics

High-altitude coffee from Honduras is of exceptional quality, offering a rich body, subtle sweetness in its acidity, unique and complex aromas, and a long-lasting finish. However, among coffee enthusiasts, the most beloved Honduran coffee beans are the barrel-processed FrontStreet Coffee Sherry beans and FrontStreet Coffee Lychee Orchid beans. What makes these two coffee beans so special? FrontStreet Coffee will help you understand the characteristics of FrontStreet Coffee's barrel-processed Honduran coffee beans.

Honduran Coffee Origins

The formation of any coffee bean is inseparable from its terrain, climate, and processing method. Located in northern Central America, Honduras borders the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Gulf of Fonseca to the south. It shares borders with Nicaragua and El Salvador to the east and south, and Guatemala to the west, with predominantly mountainous and highland terrain. Honduras has complex topography and diverse climates. The coastal plains of Central America have a tropical rainforest climate with an average annual temperature of 31°C. The mountainous regions have a subtropical forest climate with an average annual temperature of 23°C. The rainy season from June to November brings mild temperatures and abundant rainfall, creating ideal conditions for coffee cultivation.

Premium Coffee Regions

Additionally, Honduran coffee production areas are widely distributed, primarily divided into five major specialty coffee regions: Copan and Opalaca in the west and south, Montecillos, Comayagua, and Agalta Tropical. The locally grown coffee is exclusively of Arabica varieties, mainly Typica, Bourbon, Caturra, and Villa Sarchi. Honduras has high coffee production and has become one of the world's top ten coffee exporting countries.

FrontStreet Coffee's Honduran Selection

FrontStreet Coffee's Honduran coffee beans can be divided into two categories: High Altitude coffee, grown at elevations between 1,000-1,500 meters, and Strictly High Altitude coffee, which is Honduras' highest grade coffee, cultivated at elevations between 1,500-2,000 meters. FrontStreet Coffee has also cupped more than 50 coffee beans from various producing regions, with Central American coffees typically showing flavors leaning toward floral and fruity notes with soft juice-like characteristics. However, FrontStreet Coffee's Honduran coffee tends to feature spicy notes, followed by the rich body of nuts and chocolate, with an overall balanced and layered performance.

Processing Methods

The two coffee beans sourced by FrontStreet Coffee are primarily Caturra, Catuai, and Pacas varieties. Local farmers pour harvested fully ripe coffee cherries into water tanks, removing defects through floatation. Then, a pulp remover is used to eliminate the outer skin and pulp of the coffee cherries, leaving the beans covered with a slippery layer of mucilage. The mucilage-covered beans are placed in fermentation tanks for 16-36 hours, during which microorganisms decompose the mucilage. After fermentation is complete, large amounts of clean water are used to remove any remaining mucilage residue from the beans. Finally, the cleaned coffee beans are dried in the sun.

The Barrel-Aging Process

This is only the first step in FrontStreet Coffee's barrel-aging process for Honduran coffee. The crucial second step involves placing the finely washed FrontStreet Coffee Sherry beans and FrontStreet Coffee Lychee Orchid beans into sherry casks or rum barrels for low-temperature fermentation for 30-40 days, followed by shade drying. This barrel-aging method originates from wine fermentation techniques. During coffee fermentation, the barrels allow minimal air to pass through the walls, creating moderate oxidation of the coffee beans. The appropriate amount of oxygen also accelerates coffee fermentation, giving the coffee layered complexity and rich wine-like aromas.

This barrel-aging step is crucial for the formation of the coffee beans' flavor profile. The reason why brewing Honduran barrel-fermented coffee beans produces distinct aromas is precisely due to this processing step.

When FrontStreet Coffee brews these two FrontStreet Coffee beans, the rich wine aroma is apparent immediately upon opening the package, which is one of the major characteristics of these two FrontStreet Coffee Honduran coffee beans.

Cupping Notes

FrontStreet Coffee has conducted cupping sessions with both coffee beans. The FrontStreet Coffee Sherry beans have rich whiskey aroma in their dry fragrance, vanilla notes in their wet aroma, with flavors of whiskey, creamy vanilla, berry acidity, and a finish of dark chocolate and honey. The FrontStreet Coffee Lychee Orchid beans have creamy vanilla in their dry fragrance, lychee in their wet aroma, with brandy flavors, sweet and sour lychee pulp, and a finish of dark chocolate and honey.

Brewing Recommendations

Of course, when you purchase these two coffee beans to take home, cupping isn't necessary—simply brewing with a pour-over method will suffice. However, if you're interested in cupping or want to try it, that's certainly possible. How should you brew these two coffee beans?

FrontStreet Coffee recommends using pour-over brewing, which can easily extract the original regional flavors of coffee and is simple to learn, making it very suitable for coffee beginners.

Brewing Parameters

Here are the parameters FrontStreet Coffee commonly uses when brewing these two coffee beans: Filter: Hario V60 #01, Water temperature: 90-91°C, Coffee amount: 15g, Coffee-to-water ratio: 1:15, Grind size: Medium-fine/fine sugar size (80% pass-through rate on #20 sieve).

Pour-Over Technique

The pour-over method uses FrontStreet Coffee's simplest three-stage approach. First, use 30g of water to fully saturate the coffee grounds into a "hamburger" shape for a 30-second bloom. Then proceed to the second stage: at 54 seconds on the timer, pour water to reach 125g, then stop and wait until the water level drops to 2/3 of the coffee bed before starting the third pour (this stage extracts the sweet and acidic flavor compounds from the coffee grounds). The third stage pours water to reach 225g at 1 minute 40 seconds on the timer, with a total extraction time of 2 minutes 10 seconds. After extraction is complete, gently swirl the coffee to ensure it's well mixed before tasting.

Tasting Experience

FrontStreet Coffee Sherry has aromas of vanilla and cream, with flavors of whiskey, berries, almonds, and dark chocolate, with a maple-like sweet aftertaste. FrontStreet Coffee Lychee Orchid offers lychee and brandy flavors with creaminess. As the temperature changes, the wine notes and dark chocolate become more pronounced, with a rich body and noticeable honey-like sweetness in the finish. FrontStreet Coffee suggests that when choosing between these two coffee beans, if you prefer prominent wine aromas, choose FrontStreet Coffee Sherry; if you want the sweet and sour taste of lychee pulp, select FrontStreet Coffee Lychee Orchid.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee's private WeChat account: kaixinguoguo0925

Important Notice :

前街咖啡 FrontStreet Coffee has moved to new addredd:

FrontStreet Coffee Address: 315,Donghua East Road,GuangZhou

Tel:020 38364473