About This Coffee
Finca Liquidambar has been managed by the González-Carrillo family for more than a century and is currently led by Roberto René González. Roberto was one of the first in his community to earn a college degree. After graduating with a degree in business administration, he returned home to manage RAOS, a smallholder coffee cooperative in Marcala and help his family run the coffee farm.
Cultivation
Finca Liquidambar is located at 1,550 m.a.s.l. in the mountainous area of San José, near Marcala, in the Montecillo mountain range—one of the most privileged specialty coffee-producing areas in Central America.
Roberto is currently working to have 20 hectares of his farm formally recognized as a nature reserve, with the goal of turning it into a tourist destination in the area.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
This lot is processed through anaerobic fermentation, an innovative technique in which, before pulping the cherries, they are kept in airtight tanks—usually plastic containers or barrels—to isolate oxygen and enhance the controlled fermentation process.
Before sealing the barrels, it is necessary to measure the pH and take a Brix reading (an indication of sugar content) to determine the optimal fermentation time, which is crucial for extracting the best flavors from the beans. The containers are then placed under shade, allowing bacteria to work at room temperature for an extended period.
After spending 25 to 30 hours in the tank, the coffee is pulped and placed in a greenhouse to dry for four days before being transferred to raised beds, where it dries for 12 to 18 days at a temperature of 21°C. The process requires meticulous attention to detail, including cherry selection, cleanliness, humidity levels, and the temperature inside and outside the barrels. Controlling all these variables and fermentation time is essential to prevent over-fermentation, which could compromise the coffee’s quality.
Sustainable Harvest
Sustainable Harvest® is a specialty coffee trader focusing primarily on bringing coffees to market that are sourced from smallholder farmer cooperatives in the supply chain such as indigenous communities, women groups and the next generation of coffee farmers.
Their sourcing model is built on transparency, traceability and direct relationships between quality-minded coffee roasters and best-in-class coffee producers. Sustainable Harvest® has an on-site presence at origin with staff in Mexico, Colombia, Guatemala, Costa Rica and Peru. Each office coordinates their supply including quality management, supplier relationships, source development, logistics, training and capacity building.
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.