Honduras Finca Moca Lychee Orchid Brandy Barrel Fermented Washed Coffee Brewing Recommendations

Introduction to Honduras Lychee Orchid Coffee

Ever since FrontStreet Coffee introduced a new coffee bean with wine-like aromas, coffee enthusiasts have been deeply captivated by it. This bean is the Frontsteet Honduras Lychee Orchid coffee bean from Honduras. Because it undergoes barrel fermentation processing, the coffee beans possess fermented wine aromas and are delightfully sweet. So how can coffee fans brew this Frontsteet Honduras Lychee Orchid coffee bean using pour-over methods to fully express its flavors? FrontStreet Coffee will share some pour-over brewing techniques through this article.

FrontStreet Coffee: Honduras Lychee Orchid Coffee Bean

Country: Honduras

Region: Masaguara (Moca Estate)

Altitude: 1500-1700m

Varieties: Caturra, Catuai

Processing: Fine washed + brandy barrel fermentation

Flavor Notes: Brandy, dark chocolate, berries, gentle fruit acidity, honey

First, FrontStreet Coffee would like to introduce the relevant information about this Honduras coffee bean, because whether pour-over coffee tastes good or not is complementary to the beans themselves. While having superb pour-over coffee skills, you also need high-quality coffee beans as the foundation. FrontStreet Coffee's previous articles mentioned that the production of high-quality coffee beans depends on their region, variety, and processing method. FrontStreet Coffee will now focus on these three points to explain what kind of coffee bean this Frontsteet Honduras Lychee Orchid is.

Frontsteet Honduras Coffee Bean Region

Honduras is located in northern Central America. Since 2011, it has become the highest coffee-producing country in Central America. Neighboring countries are also coffee-producing nations, such as Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, etc. However, most of Honduras' coffee beans are exported to Germany and the United States, with the remaining majority being consumed domestically. Therefore, in the coffee market, Honduran coffee is considered a niche coffee.

Most of Honduras' territory consists of mountains or plateaus, making it a typical tropical climate region. The coastal areas have a tropical rainforest climate, making it very suitable for growing high-quality single-origin coffee beans. According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, the coffee plantation area in Honduras reaches up to 280,000 hectares, with small coffee cultivation estates accounting for more than half of Honduras' coffee production.

Most Honduran coffee is also grown on mountainsides with abundant sunlight, high altitude, large temperature differences, and high rainfall—all very suitable for coffee growth. However, because it's grown on mountainsides, coffee cherries can only be harvested manually by hand, which is quite labor-intensive. But the advantage is that manual harvesting ensures that all harvested coffee cherries are fully mature fruits, which also guarantees the high quality of the coffee beans. This has contributed to Honduras' coffee entering the specialty coffee market.

This Frontsteet Lychee Orchid coffee that FrontStreet Coffee acquired comes from a small estate in Masaguara, Honduras—Moca Estate. Masaguara is a municipality located in the Intibucá department of Honduras, situated in the southern part of the Jeses de Otoro Valley, surrounded by mountains and hills. It is primarily dedicated to coffee cultivation and serves as the main economic driver of the local area. In contrast, the regions corresponding to the valley are dedicated to growing basic grains and livestock. The origin of the area's name: According to Mr. Alberto Membreño's "Indigenous Place Names," Masaguara means "place with deer." The average altitude of this area is 853 meters, with high-altitude areas reaching over 1500 meters. Moca Estate is located in the highest altitude region of Masaguara, so the quality of coffee cherries produced here is not bad. This is one of the reasons why FrontStreet Coffee introduced this Frontsteet Lychee Orchid coffee bean.

Honduras Coffee Varieties

The varieties cultivated in Honduras are Arabica varieties, including Bourbon, Caturra, Catuai, and Pacas.

This Frontsteet Lychee Orchid coffee bean uses the most common Caturra and Catuai coffee varieties in the country. Caturra was discovered in 1937 in the city of Caturra, Brazil, hence named after the city. The fruit yield and disease resistance of this variety are superior to Bourbon, inheriting Bourbon's advantages of low tree height and easy harvesting. Catuai is a hybrid variety, created by crossing Caturra and Mundo Novo varieties. It has better disease resistance but slightly inferior flavor and mouthfeel compared to Caturra.

Caturra

Caturra is a single-gene variant of Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Its yield and disease resistance are both better than Bourbon, and the plants are shorter, making harvesting convenient. Unfortunately, like Bourbon, it has the problem of biennial yield fluctuations. However, its flavor is comparable to or slightly inferior to Bourbon beans. More importantly, it has extremely strong adaptability—it doesn't need shade trees and can thrive when directly exposed to strong sunlight, commonly known as full-sun coffee. It can adapt to high-density cultivation but requires more fertilization, increasing costs, so initial acceptance by coffee farmers was not high.

Cataui

Cataui is an Arabica hybrid variety, a cross between Mundo Novo (New World) and Caturra. It has better resistance to natural disasters, especially wind and rain resistance. It inherits Caturra's advantage of low tree height, correcting the shortcomings of Mundo Novo; another advantage is its solid fruit setting that doesn't easily fall off in strong winds, compensating for Arabica's weakness of fragile fruit. However, its overall flavor performance is more monotonous than Caturra, and also more monotonous than Mundo Novo with less body, which is its greatest regret. Additionally, its fruit growth and harvesting lifespan is only about ten years, making the short lifespan another weakness.

Frontsteet Honduras Lychee Orchid Coffee Bean Processing Method

As mentioned above by FrontStreet Coffee, the reason this Lychee Orchid coffee bean has fermented wine aromas is because it is processed using barrel fermentation and washed processing. So what exactly is this processing method?

Barrel Fermentation Processing Method

The barrel fermentation method draws inspiration from winemaking techniques. According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, the greatest influence in the wine fermentation process is that wine achieves structural stability through moderate oxidation and incorporates barrel aromas into the wine. Coffee beans undergo similar effects during fermentation in barrels.

Because barrels allow very small amounts of air to pass through the barrel walls and penetrate into the barrel, causing moderate oxidation of the coffee beans. The appropriate amount of oxygen entering also accelerates the coffee's fermentation, smoothens tannins, and gradually develops fresh fruit aromas into rich and complex mature wine aromas. The moderate hardness of the barrel ensures good waterproofness and storage safety. Additionally, the barrel contains a certain amount of tannins. When green coffee beans are stored, the barrel's tannins also penetrate into the green beans inside, giving the coffee layered complexity and rich wine aromas.

Frontsteet Lychee Orchid Coffee Bean Processing Flow:

During processing, freshly harvested coffee cherries first undergo fine washing, then are placed in brandy oak barrels for low-temperature fermentation for 30-40 days (temperature approximately 15-20°C), allowing the green coffee beans to absorb the barrel's flavors. Finally, they undergo shade drying. After brandy barrel fermentation processing, the coffee beans have the gentle sweetness of lychee and honey, while also incorporating full-bodied brandy aromas and oak barrel scents. Therefore, the estate owner named this brandy barrel-fermented coffee bean "Lychee Orchid." The estate also has another coffee bean fermented in whiskey barrels called Frontsteet Honduras Sherry Coffee Bean, which also performs excellently in flavor. Coffee enthusiasts who are interested might also want to try Frontsteet Honduras Sherry Coffee Bean.

The above is the relevant information about Frontsteet Honduras Lychee Orchid coffee beans compiled by FrontStreet Coffee, hoping to help coffee enthusiasts better understand this coffee bean. Next, FrontStreet Coffee will share how to brew using pour-over methods to fully express the flavors of this Frontsteet Lychee Orchid coffee bean.

FrontStreet Coffee Pour-Over Brewing Data Sharing

Cake Dripper

The cake dripper has a flat bottom with three small holes, using the creases of the filter paper to replace the flow channels of the dripper. This reduces the contact area between the dripper and filter paper, allowing water to flow evenly and smoothly, making coffee extraction more successful and slowing the cooling rate, making this bean overall smoother and more balanced.

Parameters & Technique: 15g of coffee; medium-fine grind (fine sugar: 80% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve); water temperature 90°C, coffee-to-water ratio 1:15; bloom with 30g water for 30 seconds, small stream center pour to 125g, when water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 225g, when water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. (Timer starts from bloom) Extraction time is 1 minute 58 seconds.

[Frontsteet Lychee Orchid] Flavor: Brandy, gentle berry acidity, creamy dark chocolate aftertaste.

Hario V60 Dripper

The bottom of the Hario V60 dripper has one large water outlet, and the internal ribs have a curved vortex structure distribution, extending from the bottom to the top. This makes the coffee flow rate relatively fast, but because the ribs are curved, it also slows down the flow rate of coffee liquid to a certain extent, increasing the extraction of coffee grounds and better showcasing the flavor layers of the beans.

Parameters & Technique: 15g of coffee; medium-fine grind (fine sugar: 82% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve); water temperature 90°C, coffee-to-water ratio 1:15; bloom with 30g water for 30 seconds, small stream center pour to 118g, when water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, continue pouring to 228g, when water level drops and is about to expose the coffee bed, remove the dripper. (Timer starts from bloom) Extraction time is 1 minute 56 seconds.

[Frontsteet Lychee Orchid] Flavor: Brandy, dark chocolate, gentle berry acidity, with honey's sweet aftertaste.

French Press

The French press completely immerses coffee in the pot, then uses a plunger with a metal filter to separate coffee from coffee grounds. This brewing method can maintain coffee texture and oils, while also being a relatively convenient and easy-to-use device.

Parameters & Technique: 20g of coffee; medium-fine grind (BG 6S: 58% pass-through rate on China standard #20 sieve); water temperature 90°C, coffee-to-water ratio 1:15; directly pour water to 300g, steep for 3 minutes then press and filter, pour out all coffee. Extraction time is 3 minutes 14 seconds.

[Frontsteet Lychee Orchid] Flavor: Brandy, chocolate, honey, with some oils and slight powderiness in mouthfeel (the powderiness is because the French press uses a metal filter which presses out some fine powders; if you want better mouthfeel, you can add filter paper to the metal filter).

Conclusion

Coffee extracted with the cake dripper has a smoother mouthfeel with gentle fruit acidity;

Coffee extracted with the V60 dripper has more complete flavors, with rich wine aromas, gentle berry acidity, and honey's sweet aftertaste;

Coffee extracted with the French press, in addition to rich wine aromas, also has a slight oily sensation.

For more specialty coffee beans, please add FrontStreet Coffee on private WeChat, WeChat ID: kaixinguoguo0925

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