Honduras El Naranjo Estate Honduras El Naranjo Estate Catuai

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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 is located in central Central America, bordering 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 an area of 112,492 square kilometers with a coastline of approximately 1,033 kilometers. Except for the coastal plains, the entire territory consists of mountainous terrain, with the highest point in the northwest reaching 3,000 meters above sea level, and the southern part also exceeding 2,400 meters. The main rivers in the country include the Coco River, Patuca River, and Ulua River. Rivers originating from the inland mountainous areas crisscross and flow into both oceans. Between the various mountain ranges, many basins and valleys have formed, with larger basins including the Sula and Repaguan Lake basins, and main valleys including the Comayagua and Hamastlan valleys.

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

For coffee production, Honduras's geographical conditions are no less favorable than its neighboring coffee-producing countries such as Guatemala and Nicaragua. Honduras has 280,000 hectares of coffee plantations, mainly small-scale coffee farms, most of which are smaller than 3.5 hectares. These coffee plantations account for sixty percent of Honduras's total coffee production. In the coffee plantations, because the growing areas are in mountainous regions, people hand-pick coffee beans and then carefully process them to produce higher quality coffee beans. Honduras harvests three million bags of coffee annually, providing abundant and high-quality coffee to everyone, and has now 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 water and soil conditions, and a batch of high-quality coffee trees grows in Honduras's El Naranjo Estate. The estates are often named after their shade trees, so the shade trees of El Naranjo Estate 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 fruit trees also infuse the coffee with rich layers of floral and fruity aromas. The varieties currently planted in the estate include Caturra, Bourbon, and Geisha. In addition to fruit trees and coffee trees, the estate also has windbreaks to protect the coffee and fertilizers made mainly from coffee cherry husks.

Last year, 2016, El Naranjo Estate won 14th place in the Cup of Excellence competition, and female estate 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 estate owners and coffee farmers. After getting married, Carmen started working with coffee. The two cooperate well - she is responsible for harvesting and drying processes, while her husband handles depulping. They hope to pass on to their two children not just a coffee farm, but also a passion for coffee. The family has been involved in coffee tree cultivation and promotion 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, with El Naranjo being one of them. The entire estate covers 43 hectares with an average altitude of 1650m.

Honduran coffee beans are relatively large in size, uniform in size, and evenly colored with luster. For harvesting convenience, farmers prune coffee trees to not exceed 150 centimeters. If they grow too tall, ladders must be used for picking, which is not only time-consuming but may also damage the tree due to bending branches. Since each coffee fruit matures at different times, manual picking is necessary to maintain the good quality of coffee beans, and then mature fruits are selected from them. Coffee fruits on the same branch often require several weeks to complete the entire harvest.

02 | Processing Method

Due to the many disadvantages of the natural processing method, the washed processing method was invented. The washed processing method is currently the most widely used processing method, with the biggest difference from natural processing being the use of fermentation to remove the mucilage layer.

Processing Process

1. Removing floating beans: Coffee beans are poured into a large water tank. Underdeveloped inferior beans will float to the water surface, while mature, full fruits will sink to the bottom. At this point, the floating beans on the water surface are scooped out, completing the step of removing floating beans and selecting high-quality fruits. Usually, larger fruits represent better maturity.

2. Removing skin and pulp: Through a pulping machine, the outer skin and pulp of the coffee fruit are removed. (This leaves the mucilage, parchment, and silver skin).

3. Fermentation: The purpose of this step is to use biological methods to remove the mucilage. The coffee fruits processed by the pulping machine are placed in fermentation tanks for 16-36 hours, during which fermentation bacteria dissolve the mucilage.

4. Washing: After completing fermentation and removing mucilage, fermentation bacteria and impurities remain on the coffee beans, so the beans are washed again. To ensure thorough cleaning, this step consumes large amounts of clean water. Finally, the natural drying method is used for drying, so its flavor always has a light fruity aroma.

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