Honduran Sherry Coffee with Barrel Processing Method: Introduction to Whiskey Sherry Barrel Coffee Characteristics

Honduran Sherry coffee is neither acidic nor bitter, with a rich milky aroma, offering notes of whiskey, almond, and chocolate upon entry, followed by a maple sweetness in the aftertaste. This is why Honduran Sherry coffee has become so popular among everyone. FrontStreet Coffee's Honduran Sherry coffee has always been a favorite among coffee enthusiasts.

Honduran coffee beans were not particularly famous at first, until the appearance of barrel-processed Sherry coffee and Lychee Lan coffee, when everyone began to view this origin's coffee beans in a new light. In fact, the earliest use of barrel fermentation for coffee processing was at Colombia's Hacienda San Jose. In addition to running the coffee estate, the owner of Hacienda San Jose also engaged in the production of rum oak barrels and rum distillation. One day, his wife Monsalve Botero had an inspiration while helping fill the barrels with distillate for fermentation - if coffee beans were placed in the oak barrels after rum production for fermentation, could they also develop wine-like flavors? Thus, since 2013, Monsalve Botero began experimenting with low-temperature fermentation of coffee using Colombian oak barrels of different vintages. In 2017, she successfully created her ideal combination, such as FrontStreet Coffee's San Jose coffee.

Honduras is an ideal place for coffee cultivation. Located in northern Central America, it borders the Caribbean Sea to the north, the Gulf of Fonseca in the Pacific Ocean to the south, Nicaragua and El Salvador to the east and south, and Guatemala to the west. Its terrain consists mainly of mountains and plateaus, with a tropical climate, mild temperatures, and abundant rainfall, making it very suitable for coffee growth.

Honduras is located in northern Central America, bordering Nicaragua and El Salvador to the east and south, and Guatemala to the west. It consists mainly of mountains and plateaus, with an altitude of about 1500 meters, tropical climate, average temperatures between 16-20°C, and abundant rainfall, which is conducive to coffee cultivation. Honduran coffee is primarily cultivated by small family farms, with 70% of small farms being less than 2 hectares. Honduran coffee characteristics include exotic spice elements in aroma, followed by a rich nutty chocolate sensation, with an overall balanced and layered presentation.

Honduran Coffee Regions

Honduras boasts unique geographical advantages such as high altitude, microclimates, abundant rainfall, and fertile volcanic ash soil, which contribute to the rich layers, strong and bright tones of Honduran coffee, with excellent top-quality. The producing regions are divided into six major areas – Copán, Opalaca, Montecillos, Comayagua, Agalta, and El Paraiso.

Copán

The Copán region is located between Honduras and Guatemala. The plantation altitude here exceeds 1000 meters, making it one of the most famous coffee growing regions in Honduras. The Copán region experiences significant temperature and humidity variations throughout the year. Honduran coffee from this region is characterized by its aromatic profile, noticeable sweetness, and rich taste.

Montecillos

Montecillos is located between Honduras and El Salvador. Due to the lower nighttime temperatures in this region, with a maximum planting altitude of up to 1600 meters, coffee cherries require longer ripening time. Coffee from the Montecillos region has more prominent fruit acidity and sweetness.

Comayagua

In 2016, the Comayagua region had the highest production among all Honduran regions. The coffee growing areas of the Comayagua region are located in the remote mountainous areas of central Honduras. The coffee produced here combines citrus and honey flavors, with balanced acidity and sweetness, and a smooth taste.

Agalta

This region consists mostly of forest reserves with an excellent ecological environment, but with slightly lower altitudes between 1000 and 1400 meters, belonging to a tropical climate. Coffee produced in this region carries fruit and chocolate flavors.

El Paraiso

This region is located between Honduras and Nicaragua and is the oldest and largest coffee producing region in Honduras. The planting altitude here is between 1000 and 1400 meters. In the 2017 Honduras Cup of Excellence (COE) competition, a coffee bean from El Paraiso won the championship that year.

Opalaca

This region borders the Copán region to the west, with a slightly higher planting altitude, giving the coffee beans from this region strong aromas and tropical fruit flavors. A well-known sub-region within this main producing area is the Masaguara region.

FrontStreet Coffee has two Honduran coffee beans - Sherry coffee beans and Lychee Lan coffee beans, both from the Moca estate in Masaguara, Honduras. Masaguara is a municipality located in the Intibucá department of Honduras, situated in the southern part of the Jesús de Otoro valley, surrounded by mountains and hills. It is mainly dedicated to coffee growers, which is the main engine of the local economy. In contrast, the areas corresponding to the valley are dedicated to growing basic grains and livestock. Its name origin: According to Mr. Alberto Membreo's "Indigenous Place Names," Masaguara means "place of deer." The Moca estate is just a small estate in the high-altitude areas of Masaguara.

Honduran Coffee Varieties

Most of its coffee varieties were introduced by IHCAFE, such as varieties introduced from neighboring countries in the 1970s: Pacas from El Salvador, Villa Sarchi from Costa Rica, and Catuai from Guatemala. Additionally, in the 1990s, two varieties Lempira and IHCAFE 90 were developed to combine disease resistance and quality. With social development, Honduras has greatly improved and enhanced its processing technology and transportation capabilities. According to FrontStreet Coffee's understanding, Honduras has now become one of the top ten coffee producing countries in the world and the second largest Arabica coffee producing country.

This terrain and climate are very suitable for growing Bourbon, Typica, Caturra, Catuai, and Pacas varieties, which Honduras primarily cultivates.

Caturra is a natural variant of Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Its plant is not as tall as Bourbon, being more compact. Due to inheriting Bourbon lineage, it has relatively weak disease resistance but higher yield than Bourbon. Although discovered in Brazil, Caturra is not suitable for growth in Brazil and therefore was not cultivated on a large scale there, but became popular in Central and South America, such as Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

Catuai is a coffee variety that is an artificial hybrid of Caturra and Mondu Novo. Catuai has good resistance to natural disasters, especially wind and rain. The Catuai tree is relatively low, and compared to other coffee trees, Catuai fruits grow more firmly and are not easy to pick. The fruits come in both red and yellow colors.

Pacas is a natural variant of Bourbon. Like other widely planted low-Bourbon varieties, Pacas is a single-gene mutation. Its main advantage is that the coffee tree is small, has high yield potential, and can be intercropped with other plants such as fruits, thereby increasing coffee fruit production. This variety was discovered in 1949 on a farm belonging to the Pacas family in the Santa Ana region of El Salvador. In 1960, the Salvadoran Coffee Research Institute (ISIC) began a pedigree selection program for Pacas (selection of individual plants through successive generations, also known as single-plant selection). It is popular in Central America and widely planted in El Salvador, accounting for about 25% of its production. In 1974, the Honduran Coffee Research Institute introduced this variety and cultivated it in Honduras.

In recent years, the coffee industry trend has started from post-processing methods of raw beans, developing many novel and interesting approaches such as "red wine processing," "lactic acid fermentation," "double washing," "special strain treatment," etc. This Honduras-Sherry coffee also belongs to specially post-processed coffee. Previously, Honduran coffee had rich sweetness and moderate taste but lacked attractive entry aroma. Previously, Honduran coffee had rich sweetness and moderate taste but lacked attractive entry aroma. To achieve entry aroma, processing plants began researching methods to enhance aroma, which led to this Honduras-Sherry whiskey barrel low-temperature fermentation processing method.

What is Barrel Fermentation Processing?

Barrel fermentation method is borrowed from winemaking technology. Its greatest impact on wine is that wine achieves structural stability through appropriate oxidation and incorporates barrel flavors into the wine, playing a similar role in the coffee fermentation process. Barrels allow a small amount 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 coffee fermentation, smoothes tannins, and gradually transforms fresh fruit aromas into rich and varied mature wine aromas. The moderate hardness of the barrel ensures good waterproofness and storage safety. Additionally, the barrel contains a certain amount of tannic acid. When raw coffee beans are stored during the process, the barrel's tannic acid also penetrates into the raw beans inside, giving the coffee layers and a rich wine aroma.

Whiskey Barrel Fermentation Method:

The harvested coffee cherries are first subjected to fine washed processing. After washing, they are placed in whiskey barrels for low-temperature fermentation for 30-40 days (temperature approximately 15-20°C), followed by shade drying. This processing method is called fine washed whiskey sherry barrel fermentation.

What kind of whiskey barrels are used for whiskey barrel fermentation?

All barrels are stacked according to age, with the oldest sherry wine at the bottom and the youngest at the top. Each year, some wine is drawn from the bottom barrels for bottling and sales, and corresponding proportions of wine are drawn from the upper barrels to replenish them, which forms the "uniqueness of sherry wine." The whiskey barrels used for Sherry coffee beans are the middle ones - neither too old nor too young - for fermentation, because such whiskey oak barrels themselves have absorbed just the right amount of wine aroma - not too strong nor too bland, which can be described as just right.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Parameters for Honduran Coffee:

For this sherry wine-aroma coffee bean from FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee), because this bean showed obvious vanilla cream aroma during cupping, in order to highlight its sweetness, we chose the Hario V60 for brewing. The V60 dripper, due to its relatively fast flow rate, allows the extracted coffee flavor to have distinct layers and obvious aroma.

When brewing, you can use a V60 dripper with a 1:15 coffee-to-water ratio, medium grind (about coarse sugar size/80% pass-through rate with China No. 20 standard sieve), and water temperature of 91°C.

Adopting segmented extraction, use 2 times the amount of coffee in water for blooming, that is, 30g of water for 30 seconds of blooming. The reason for the blooming process is to allow the coffee powder to release internal carbon dioxide gas, thereby making the subsequent extraction more stable. With a small water flow, pour in circles until reaching 125g for segmentation, then continue pouring until 225g and stop. Wait until the water in the dripper finishes dripping, then remove the dripper. Time from the beginning of pouring, extraction time is 2'00". Next, pick up the entire cup of coffee and shake it evenly, then pour it into a cup for tasting.

Honduran Sherry Coffee Flavor Characteristics: The front notes have vanilla and cream aromas, with whiskey, berry, and dark chocolate flavors upon entry, and a maple sweetness in the aftertaste.

Honduran Lychee Lan Coffee Flavor Characteristics: Upon entry, lychee, brandy, and cream flavors; after cooling, wine and dark chocolate become obvious, with a thick texture and noticeable honey sweetness in the aftertaste.

FrontStreet Coffee's Brewing Suggestions:

Regarding coffee brewing, FrontStreet Coffee has always believed that the freshness of coffee beans has a great relationship with the flavor of coffee. Therefore, the coffee beans shipped by FrontStreet Coffee (FrontStreet Coffee) are all within 5 days of roasting. FrontStreet Coffee's roasting philosophy is "freshly roasted good coffee," ensuring that every customer who places an order receives the freshest coffee when it arrives. The coffee resting period is about 4-7 days, so when customers receive it, it is at its peak flavor.

For friends who need ground coffee, FrontStreet Coffee kindly reminds: coffee beans ground in advance do not need further resting, because during transportation, the pressure from carbon dioxide inside the packaging can also make the coffee flavor mellow, so you can immediately brew a cup to drink when receiving the ground coffee. However, ground coffee needs to be brewed promptly, because after coffee powder comes into contact with air, it oxidizes relatively quickly, meaning the coffee flavor will dissipate more quickly, and the coffee flavor won't be as good. Therefore, FrontStreet Coffee recommends purchasing whole beans and grinding fresh before brewing to better taste the coffee's flavor.

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