Honduras El Naranjo Estate Honduras El Naranjo Estate Catuai

FrontStreet Coffee - Honduras El Naranjo Estate Introduction

Honduras El Naranjo

Country: Honduras

Region: Marcala

Altitude: 1425 meters

Variety: Catuai

Processing Method: Washed

01 | Region Introduction

Honduras sits in the middle of Central America, bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, the Pacific Ocean to the south, Guatemala to the west, El Salvador to the southwest, and Nicaragua to the southeast. It covers 112,492 square kilometers with a coastline of about 1,033 kilometers. Aside from the coastal plains, the country is all mountainous terrain, with the highest point in the northwest reaching 3,000 meters above sea level and the south also exceeding 2,400 meters. Its main rivers include the Coco, Patuca, and Ulua. Rivers rising in the inland mountains crisscross the country and flow into both oceans. Between the ranges, many basins and valleys have formed, the largest basins being the Sula and Repaguan Lake basins, and the main valleys the Comayagua and Hamastlan.

The country divides into four natural regions: the eastern lowlands, the northern coastal alluvial plains, the central highlands, and the Pacific coastal lowlands. Coastal islands are scattered throughout, the main ones being the Bay Islands and the Tigre Islands in the Gulf of Fonseca. Honduras has complex topography and varied climates. The Central American coastal plains have a tropical rainforest climate with an average annual temperature of 31°C, while the mountains have a subtropical forest climate averaging 23°C, with the rainy season from June to November.

For coffee, Honduras's geography is no less favorable than that of neighbors such as Guatemala and Nicaragua. Honduras has 280,000 hectares of coffee plantations, mainly small farms, most smaller than 3.5 hectares. These plantations account for sixty percent of the country's total coffee production. Because the growing areas are mountainous, people hand-pick the cherries and then process them carefully for higher quality. Honduras harvests three million bags of coffee a year, supplying abundant, high-quality coffee, and has become one of the world's top ten coffee exporting countries.

El Naranjo Estate is located in Marcala, one of Honduras's most famous producing regions. Honduras has naturally suitable soil and water, and a batch of high-quality coffee trees grows at El Naranjo. Estates are often named after their shade trees, and El Naranjo's shade trees are tall wild orange trees. The wild orange aroma is very, very strong, and the coffee grown here has a rare richness of sweetness. The orange trees also lend the coffee rich layers of floral and fruity aroma. The varieties now planted include Caturra, Bourbon, and Geisha. Besides the fruit and coffee trees, the estate also has windbreaks to protect the coffee and fertilizer made mainly from coffee cherry husks.

Last year, in 2016, El Naranjo Estate placed 14th in the Cup of Excellence competition, and its female owner, Carmen Fabiola Fiallos Melendez, finally realized her dream of becoming a specialty coffee farmer. Marcala belongs to the La Paz region, and its coffee can be compared with another famous Honduran region, Santa Barbara. The Caballero family also has farms in Marcala, and their farm in La Paz won the championship in 2016.

Unlike large estates, the Dominguez couple are both owners and farmers. After they married, Carmen began working with coffee. The two cooperate well: she handles harvesting and drying, while her husband handles depulping. They hope to pass on to their two children not just a coffee farm but a passion for coffee. The family has grown and promoted coffee trees for generations. Roger is the third-generation estate user—his grandparents started growing coffee, and through the family's efforts they now own four estates, El Naranjo being one of them. The entire estate covers 43 hectares at an average altitude of 1650m.

Honduran beans are relatively large, uniform in size, and evenly colored with a luster. For ease of harvesting, farmers prune the trees to no more than 150 centimeters; if they grow too tall, ladders are needed, which is time-consuming and can damage branches. Because each cherry ripens at a different time, hand-picking is necessary to keep quality high, with only ripe fruit selected. The cherries on a single branch often take several weeks to finish harvesting.

02 | Processing Method

Because the natural method has many drawbacks, the washed method was invented. Washed processing is now the most widely used method, and its biggest difference from natural processing is the use of fermentation to remove the mucilage layer.

Processing Process

1. Removing floating beans: the cherries are poured into a large water tank. Underdeveloped, inferior beans float to the surface, while ripe, full fruit sinks. The floating beans are skimmed off, completing the removal of floaters and the selection of high-quality fruit. Generally, larger fruit means better maturity.

2. Removing skin and pulp: a pulping machine removes the outer skin and pulp of the cherry. (This leaves the mucilage, parchment, and silver skin.)

3. Fermentation: the purpose of this step is to remove the mucilage biologically. The pulped cherries are placed in fermentation tanks for 16-36 hours, during which fermentation bacteria dissolve the mucilage.

4. Washing: after fermentation and mucilage removal, fermentation bacteria and impurities remain on the beans, so they are washed again. To ensure thorough cleaning, this step uses large amounts of clean water. Finally, the beans are dried by the natural method, which is why the flavor always carries a light fruity aroma.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

Because El Naranjo is a washed coffee, it shares the clean, sweet, transparent profile of FrontStreet Coffee's washed lineup. A great place to continue is the FrontStreet Yirgacheffe Gedingding Cooperative, a village-level Ethiopian washed lot with jasmine florals, bright citrus acidity, and a green-tea finish that shines in pour-over, cold brew, or espresso.

For a bigger, juicier washed cup, the FrontStreet Kenya Small Tomato comes from Kenya's Thika region, grown at 1,550-1,750 meters with SL28 and SL34 and given a 72-hour double-wash. Expect cherry tomato and dark plum, a bright, full acidity like fresh juice, and a clean finish of brown sugar and green tea.

And if you want a mellow, balanced everyday cup, the FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1 is washed from 100% Arabica Typica, with hazelnut, cream, chocolate, and caramel notes that stay even and smooth from first sip to finish.