Honduras Sherry Barrel Process Honduras Mocha Manor Whiskey Sherry Barrel Fermentation

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FrontStreet Coffee - Honduras Moca Estate Sherry Introduction

Honduras · Sherry

• Country: Honduras
• Region: Masaguara
• Estate: Moca Estate
• Altitude: 1500-1700m
• Varieties: Caturra, Catuai, Pacas
• Processing: Refined washed whiskey sherry barrel fermentation

Honduras is located in northern Central America, bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean's Gulf of Fonseca to the south. It shares borders with Nicaragua and El Salvador to the east and south, and Guatemala to the west, consisting mainly of mountains and plateaus. Honduras has 280,000 hectares of coffee plantations, primarily small-scale farms with most being less than 3.5 hectares. These coffee plantations account for sixty percent of Honduras's total coffee production.

In the coffee plantations, due to the mountainous terrain, people hand-pick coffee beans and carefully process them to produce higher quality coffee beans. Honduras harvests three million bags of coffee annually, providing abundant and high-quality coffee to the market. It has now become one of the world's top ten coffee exporting countries.

Masaguara

Masaguara is a municipality located in the Intibucá province of Honduras, situated in the southern part of the Jesús de Otoro valley, surrounded by mountains and hills. It is primarily dedicated to coffee growers and serves as the main economic driver for the local economy. The areas corresponding to the valley are dedicated to growing basic grains and livestock. The origin of its name: According to Mr. Alberto Membreño's "Indigenous Place Names," Masaguara means "place of deer."

Varieties (Caturra, Catuai, Pacas)

Caturra is a natural variety of Bourbon, discovered in Brazil in 1937. Its plant is not as tall as Bourbon, being more compact. Although it inherits Bourbon's lineage, its disease resistance is relatively weak, but its yield is higher than Bourbon. Although discovered in Brazil, Caturra is not suitable for growing there, so it was not widely cultivated in Brazil. Instead, it became popular in Central and South America, such as Colombia, Costa Rica, and Nicaragua.

Catauai is a coffee variety artificially hybridized from Caturra and Mondu Novo. Catauai has better resistance to natural disasters, particularly wind and rain. The Catauai tree is relatively short, and compared to other coffee trees, Catauai's fruit grows more firmly and is not easy to harvest. The fruit comes in both red and yellow varieties.

Pacas is a natural variety of Bourbon. Like other widely planted low-Bourbon lineage varieties, Pacas is a single-gene mutation. Its main advantages are that the coffee tree is small, has relatively high yield potential, and can be interplanted with other fruits and plants, thereby increasing coffee cherry 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 project for Pacas (also known as single-plant selection through continuous generations of selecting individual plants). It is popular in Central America and widely cultivated in El Salvador, accounting for approximately 25% of its production. In 1974, the Honduran Coffee Research Institute introduced this variety and cultivated it in Honduras.

Processing Method

The refined washed whiskey sherry barrel fermentation processing method involves first performing refined washing on freshly harvested coffee fruits, then placing them in whiskey oak barrels that have been aged with sherry wine for low-temperature fermentation for 30-40 days (temperature approximately 15-20°C), followed by shade drying.

"Sherry barrels" are barrels used by sherry distilleries in the whiskey industry for aging. Sherry is a famous fortified wine produced in the sunny Jerez region of southern Spain. The production process of sherry must undergo the Solera System maturation process.

The Solera System essentially refers to the process of blending and aging different years of sherry after fortification. In the Solera System, all barrels are stacked according to year, with the oldest sherry at the bottom and the youngest sherry at the top. Each year, a portion of the liquid is drawn from the bottom barrels for bottling and sales, then supplemented with corresponding proportions of liquid from the upper barrels. This forms the "unique characteristic of sherry wine."

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