About This Coffee
Delmy Regalado can trace her family legacy at Finca La Fortuna back 4 generations. Her paternal great-grandfather started growing coffee in Ocotepeque when he was a young man. He was one of the first growers in the region to focus on producing quality-oriented coffee. In order to ensure the high quality of his coffees he hired local women who helped carefully hand sort parchment at his dry mill.
“Finca La Fortuna is a family legacy,” Delmy says. “I inherited my love for agriculture, the countryside and especially coffee from my father, who inherited it from his father. My mother taught me to work responsibly with passion and transparency and that being a woman is not a limitation in a field that has been managed by men.” She plans to share her passion for coffee production and all she knows with her own children, especially her daughter, so that the tradition is continued.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Delmy selectively handpicks ripe, red cherry and delivers it to Beneficio San Marcos wet mill in San Marcos, Ocotepeque. Once received, cherry is pulped and then parchment and remaining mucilage is laid to dry on raised beds. Parchment is raked frequently to ensure even drying. It takes approximately 15-20 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.