About This Coffee
Salvador Santos Martinez’s family has mainly been subsistence farmers. They grow grains, vegetables, gather wild blackberries and raise poultry. In the early 2000s, they decided to take a leap and begin producing coffee as a cash crop to supplement their income.
They discovered that the cooler temperatures in the region made it difficult to grow many coffee varieties. In 2008, Salvador began cultivating IHCAFE 90 and several other hardy varieties and finally found his niche. Today, Salvador invests a lot of time and energy into his coffee and takes pride in his excellent results.
Cultivation
In addition to coffee, Salvador also grows trees for timber as well as fruit trees on his farm. These trees also provide shade for growing coffee.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Salvador and his family selectively handpick cherry and process it on their farm. They pulp ripe, red cherry on their ecopulper and then place parchment and remaining mucilage on raised beds to dry. They rake parchment frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 30 days for parchment to dry.
Coffee in Honduras
Honduras is a small yet mighty coffee producer. The country boasts the largest per capita coffee production in the world. Beginning in 2017, Honduras began placing in third place for Arabica production volume globally. For this slot, they compete with Ethiopia—a country 10 times larger than Honduras. The two countries trade between third and fourth place annually, but the achievement is impressive, nonetheless.
Honduras has everything it needs to become a premier specialty coffee producer. The country has the right growing conditions, abundant fertile soils and soaring altitudes (nearly all farms are at more than 1,000 meters above sea level), plus a variety of microclimates.
Beginning in the early 2000s the industry began to focus on quality. Improved infrastructure (better mechanical dryers, centralized wet mills, an increasing number of solar dryers), quality control/assurance trainings (separating lots by qualities, cupping schools, etc.), the rise of specialty-focused exporters, increased volumes of certified coffees and the strengthening cooperative movement all have worked in tandem to make Honduran coffee ‘one to watch’.
It is only in more recent years that coffee production in Honduras has reached specialty levels comparable to other Central American countries, but specialty roasters are responding with enthusiasm. In 2017, a lot in the Cup of Excellence garnered the highest price ever paid for a Cup of Excellence coffee in any country: $124.50 per pound (approximately $56.50 per kg).
Above all, while Honduras increasingly offers high end microlots, what the country arguably represents overall is exceptional value. Quality has improved massively over the last 15 years, and in addition to unique specialty lots, the country offers very solid, clean blenders at very attractive prices.