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Honduras Coffee COE Lot 29# Introduction to Double Flower Estate Coffee

Published: 2026-01-27 Author: FrontStreet Coffee

Last Updated: 2026/01/27, Professional coffee knowledge exchange. For more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account: cafe_style). Honduras is located in northern Central America, bordering the Caribbean Sea to the north, the Pacific Ocean's Gulf of Fonseca to the south, Nicaragua and El Salvador to the east and south, and Guatemala to the west. The country is predominantly mountainous and plateau. It has a tropical climate with moderate temperatures and abundant rainfall, making it ideal for coffee cultivation.

Professional coffee knowledge exchange and more coffee bean information, please follow Coffee Workshop (WeChat official account cafe_style)

Honduras is a coffee-producing country that ranks among the top in global coffee production, featuring absolutely high altitudes and primarily cultivating Arabica varieties. In 2019, FrontStreet Coffee sold the popular sherry coffee from Honduras, which also shows that Honduran coffee professionals have their own innovative ideas. Today, we share the story of a farm with a beautiful name from Honduras - Las Gemelas Estate.

Regional Introduction

Honduras is located in northern Central America, bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Fonseca Bay of the Pacific Ocean to the south. It borders Nicaragua and El Salvador to the east and south, and Guatemala to the west, with mostly mountainous and plateau terrain. It has a tropical climate with mild temperatures and abundant rainfall, making it an ideal place for coffee cultivation.

Honduras produces two types of exceptionally high-quality coffees that are highly regarded by coffee enthusiasts. One is the "Highland Coffee" grown at altitudes of 1,000-1,500 meters, and the other is "Select Highland Coffee" grown at altitudes of 1,500-2,000 meters, representing Honduras's highest grade.

The coffee beans are relatively large in size, uniform in shape, with even color and luster. For harvesting convenience, farmers prune coffee trees to not exceed 150 centimeters, as trees that grow too tall would require ladders for picking, which is time-consuming and may damage the tree structure by bending branches. Since each coffee fruit ripens at different times, manual harvesting is necessary to maintain good coffee bean quality, followed by selection of ripe fruits. Coffee cherries from the same branch often require several weeks to complete harvesting.

Honduran coffee can be divided into six major producing regions, mainly located in the western and southern Copan region, Opalaca region, Montecillos, Comayagua, Agalta Tropical, and El Paraiso. The average altitude for specialty coffee cultivation in these areas is above 1,100 meters. 69% of the coffee cultivated in these regions is HG grade, 12% is SHG, and 19% is CS.

Copan Region:

Located between Copan, Ocotepeque, and Lempira areas, it exhibits strong chocolate flavors, characterized by the sweetness of honey and caramel, with relatively subtle fruit notes. Cultivation altitude is 1,000-1,500 meters, with harvest season from November to March.

Las Gemelas Estate

Nelly Suaba Orellana Aguilar inherited the estate from her father and family. To ensure coffee quality, they send their coffee to the ARUCO ENTERPRISE association annually for cupping and quality control. The estate's name, Las Gemelas (The Twins), was chosen by Nelly to commemorate the birth of her twin daughters.

Traditionally, the Nelly family cultivated Yellow Catuai. This year, Nelly adjusted her cultivation approach by transplanting the original Yellow Catuai and planting a batch of Red Catuai instead.

She also broke from the family's traditional washed processing method, innovatively trying natural processing and using it to participate in competitions. The two experimental batches for competition used different processing methods: one with 72 hours of pre-drying fermentation before drying, and another with 90 hours of pre-drying fermentation before drying. This award-winning coffee bean is from the 72-hour extended fermentation batch.

Variety (Red Catuai)

Red Catuai is a natural mutation of the Arabica Bourbon variety, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Compared to other coffees, Red Catuai fruits grow more densely and are harder to pick, but it has higher disease resistance and is suitable for high-altitude cultivation, producing delicate, clean acidity.

Red Catuai has medium acidity with a smooth, mild, and palatable mouthfeel, excellent body and sweetness. Its smoothness allows it to blend with most coffee beans without significantly altering the flavor profile.

Natural Processing Method

This COE competition batch #29 from Las Gemelas Estate uses the natural processing method.

The natural processing method is the oldest and most original processing method for coffee beans. It involves placing harvested coffee cherries on patios, sometimes even drying them directly on roadsides, exposing them directly to sunlight (approximately 27-30 days) until moisture content reduces from 60% to about 12%. Beans processed using this method have the lowest acidity, noticeable sweetness, high body but slightly lower clarity.

Green Bean Analysis

These beans appear light green in color, with more silver skin on the surface. The beans are relatively round, short, and uniform. They smell sour with grassy notes and pear aromas.

Roast Profile Analysis

When FrontStreet Coffee's roaster examined these beans, noting that the altitude wasn't particularly high and they were naturally processed, they decided to use a lower charge temperature and gradually reduce the heat with medium fire to roast these beans.

Roasting machine: Yangjia 800N (300g batch size)

When the drum temperature reached 175°C, beans were immediately charged with 130 heat power and damper setting at 3. The turning point was at 1'36". When the drum temperature reached 140°C, the damper was opened to 3.5, with heat unchanged. When the drum temperature reached 151.1°C, the bean surface turned yellow, grassy aromas completely disappeared, entering the dehydration phase. When the drum temperature reached 176°C, heat was adjusted to 100, damper unchanged.

At 8'28", the bean surface showed ugly wrinkles and black spots, with the toast aroma clearly transitioning to coffee aroma, which could be defined as the prelude to first crack. At this point, one needed to listen carefully for the sound of first crack. At 9'00", first crack began, damper adjusted to 4. After first crack, development time was 1'40", with beans discharged at 196°C.