About This Coffee
The 18 farmers who contributed to this lot cultivate coffee at 1,600 to 1,800 meters above sea level near the foot of the highest mountain in the Cordillera y Parque Nacional Celaque.
The producers are members of Cooperativa Cafetalera Ecológica La Labor Ocotepeque Limitada (Cocafelol). Cocafelol is paving the way for environmentally and socially conscious cooperatives by focusing on improving coffee quality, producer livelihoods and ensuring their children’s economic futures.
Cultivation
Coffee is grown in the shade of fruit trees and intercropped with vegetables like carrots, broccoli and potatoes.
The Celaque national park is an important ecosystem of cloud forests with an extraordinary range of plant and animal species.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Cherry is selectively handpicked by laborers and processed on individual farms. Ripe, red cherry is typically pulped on a drum or disc pulper, fermented and then washed in clean water. Wet parchment is brought to Cocafelol’s drying facilities where they can ensure even drying and strict quality assurance. Parchment is dried in parabolic dryers and is raked frequently to help it dry uniformly.
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.