About This Coffee
Maria Elvia Villeda grew up in coffee. She worked with her husband on their farm for many years and today she owns her own farm. Maria and her husband worked hard to teach their children the traditional ways of growing coffee and to share their coffee-producing heritage with them. Today, Maria works with Cafes Especiales Corquin S.A to produce and market her specialty coffees.
Cultivation
In addition to coffee, Maria also grows trees for timber as well as fruit trees on her farm. These trees also provide shade for growing coffee.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Maria and her 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.