Honduran Coffee Estate - Introduction to Finca La Huerta Natural Process from Santa Barbara, Honduras

FrontStreet Coffee - Honduras Santa Barbara La Huerta Natural Introduction

Honduras Champion Estate - La Huerta

La Huerta farm belongs to Jorge Lanza. Jorge and his wife Maria have grown coffee for thirty years, but their earlier plots sat at lower altitudes in Santa Barbara, where the coffee never stood out. In 2010, chasing higher quality, the couple bought the high-altitude La Huerta farm in the well-known village of Las Flores, at an altitude between 1600 and 1800 meters. This is the Cup of Excellence champion community of Santa Barbara, with fine scenery and an exceptionally favourable microclimate. From the slopes you can look down over Lake Yojoa.

The Santa Barbara range has always been rich habitat for insects, fish, birds and animals, covered in primeval forest and acting as the water source for Lake Yojoa below. The farm the Lanzas bought covers 20 hectares and grows Catuai, Pacas, Bourbon and Pacamara, farmed ecologically. During harvest, thirty households of workers arrive to help with picking, processing, drying and sorting. Drying is done naturally, on African raised beds in the sun.

La Huerta's first harvest came in 2012. The farm entered the Cup of Excellence but did not even clear the domestic evaluation round. That same year, world champion Sasa Sestic came to Honduras hunting for green coffee. On the final day of cupping he came across Jorge Lanza's coffee and was struck by it; despite it being only the first harvest, the flavour impressed him deeply. Sasa not only bought that lot but encouraged Jorge to keep entering the Cup of Excellence.

Sure enough, La Huerta's second harvest, a Catuai, took the championship at the 2013 Cup of Excellence with a record-breaking score of 92.75.

From 2012 onward, Ona continued to help Jorge raise coffee quality — harvesting, sugar-content testing, drying procedure, more experiments and controls — in the hope of pushing cupping scores higher still and testing the limits of the Cup of Excellence.

Honduras Santa Barbara La Huerta Natural

Variety: Catuai

Altitude: 1600-1800m

Processing: Natural

Flavor: Red apple, apricot, pineapple

In short: FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research house that enjoys sharing coffee knowledge with everyone. We share without reservation just to help more friends fall in love with coffee. Every month we hold three discounted coffee promotions, because FrontStreet Coffee wants to let more friends drink the best coffee at the lowest price — that has been FrontStreet Coffee's mission for the past 6 years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Natural processing keeps the whole cherry intact through drying, so the bean absorbs more of the fruit's sugars and develops a heavier body and riper fruit character. FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Sun-Dried Red Cherry is a textbook example: only fully ripe red cherry is selected and spread on raised beds, turned regularly to keep the drying even. Medium-light roasting preserves the elegant florals and bright acidity of Yirgacheffe while adding pronounced tropical fruit, a full fermented richness and clear sweetness.

FrontStreet Sun-Dried Huakui comes from Hambella in the Guji zone of Sidamo, where the high altitude, fertile soil and careful selection of ripe cherry give the bean a delicate fragrance. Combined with Sidamo's signature natural process, it shows a light fermented wine note, florals, citrus and mango, with honey sweetness, a cocoa trace and a little spice; the body is thick and the finish long.

For a very different take on the same method, FrontStreet Colombia Sidra is made by double anaerobic natural processing: the whole cherry first ferments twice in sealed tanks before drying on beds. The method builds intense tropical fruit, passion fruit, apricot, dried fruit and grape complexity with an almond-like finish, and a dense, creamy texture.