Honduras
Finca La Huertona

We don’t see this combination of origin and varietal very often. The cup is sweet and balanced—we find hints of raisin, plum and vanilla.

Washed process Marsellesa

Flavour: raisin, plum, vanilla

Body: Acidity:

Roast: omni (filter + espresso)

We don’t see this combination of origin and varietal very often. The cup is sweet and balanced—we find hints of raisin, plum and vanilla.

Noé Edgardo Rosas lives in Santa Rita de Copan in West Honduras. He has been working in coffee for about 4 decades already, although most of his time has been dedicated to conventional coffee. More recently he has been moving into more valuable varieties and processing.

In 2019, he began replanting part of his farm, establishing an 8.4-hectare area in his farm that is planted with the Marsellesa varietal. He is now planting more at altitudes between 950 to 1200 masl while looking for other high-quality options for blenders and single origin microlots. He acknowledges things aren’t easy, but this is a legacy he wants to begin for his family.

Noé, Dani and Navas.

Noé, Dani and Navas

Supporting this endeavour is Sogimex, the exporting company and partner of Condesa Co Lab (our importers). On one hand, they provide Noé with financial backing for seedlings and building a new wet milling facility, and both mechanical and solar dryers; on the other, they find new markets to sell his coffee at the highest, fairest price.

Noé offers these new facilities for other farmers to use, hoping that all collectively helps bring the coffee quality level in the region upwards and onwards.

ORIGIN

Coffee is Honduras‘ primary agricultural export crop, with 120,000+ farms contributing a third of its agricultural GDP. While this country has been historically known for its commercial-grade arabica coffee production, it’s only during the last couple of years that we’ve seen an increasing volume of specialty options coming from this country (like this one!).

VARIETAL

Marsellesa is a cross between Timor Hybrid (832/2) and Villa Sarchi (CIFC 971/10), which grows well in low to medium altitudes and offers a high yield potential and resistance to the leaf rust disease.

PROCESS

After picking and sorting through the harvest for ripe cherries, Noé depulps the coffee on the same day of harvesting. Pulped coffee is placed in a fermentation tank for 12 hours to facilitate the removal of mucilage, which is then cleaned with running water. In order to maintain consistent drying and prevent spoilage, Noé has built and uses a raised parabolic solar dryer, on which he places the washed parchment coffee for 15 days to achieve an exportable coffee with 10.5% moisture content.

The trees at Finca La Huertona

Learn everything about this coffee:

Ethical, traceable sourcing

This page has all the sourcing information (variety, process, region, story, importer, and more) that our importers share with us, and give us permission to use.

The transparency helps us talk confidently about the quality and background of our product, and it helps you know exactly what you’re buying.

Learn more:
Coffee page transparency legend
Our coffee philosophy
Our business approach

Fresh harvest coffee

We only source and roast coffee from each country’s latest harvest season (so the green coffee is never older than 1 year from the time of picking, processing and packing). This ensures the sensory qualities are always at their peak and unaffected by excessive ageing.

Roasted for espresso and filter (best enjoyed black)

Roast style: omni. Omni roasts are designed to brew and taste great both as espresso and filter. Our omni single origins generally sit on Agtron values in the ~70-60 value range. So, technically, they are somewhere in the lighter side of the medium spectrum.

Designed for espresso and filter brewing. Best enjoyed black.

Learn more:
Our Loring Kestrel S35 roaster
Our roasting style and approach

Best brewed within days 15-49 post-roast

The ‘fresh is best’ saying doesn’t apply to coffee (contrary to popular belief). Waiting before opening and brewing your bag of whole coffee beans helps develop peak flavour and acidity.

But heads up: if you buy pre-ground coffee, brew it as soon as possible.

Learn more:
Our recommended brewing window

Try our custom brewing recipes

Our recipes and ratios are tailored to our coffee sourcing and roasting styles, bringing the best flavour and feel out of each coffee.

For pour over, immersion, and other filter brewing styles, check our brew guides.
For our espresso single origins, we recommend a coffee:yield ratio of 1:3:

Dose: 20g ground coffee
Yield: 60g espresso
Total brew time: ~24-28 seconds

This is just a starting point! We encourage you to experiment, taste, and adjust to find the recipe that you enjoy the most.

Learn more:
Our espresso brew guide (single origin)
Brewing ratio calculator

Packaging and sustainability

Bags: ABA-certified home compostable (AS 5810-2010)
Labels: recyclable
Valves (only on +250g bags): general waste
Box and tape (online orders): recyclable

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Our packaging

Producer: Noé Edgardo Rosas
Farm/Coop: Finca La Huertona
Country: Honduras
Region: Santa Rita De Copan
Altitude: 950-1200m above sea level
Variety: Marsellesa
Process: washed
Importer: Condesa Co.Lab
Body
Acidity
Tasting notes: Raisin, plum, vanilla
Roast style: Omni (filter + espresso)

Variety

Marsellesa variety

Marsellesa was developed through a hybrid of Sarchimor and Caturra. It’s highly valued for its high quality in the cup and resistance to leaf rust (thanks to its Sarchimor heritage)

The location

Coffee from Honduras

The largest producer of coffee in Central America and one of our favourite coffee producing nations, capable of producing fruit driven coffees with a great, vibrant acidity.

Farm processes

Washed process

Machines are used to remove the flesh from the coffee cherry before being fermented in water, washed again, and finally sun dried. This process tends to result in more distinct, cleaner flavours.