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

Sourcing and ingredients

100% Marsellesa coffee beans, provided by Condesa Co.Lab and roasted by us on Gadigal land / Sydney.

Country grade: Unknown ?

Packaging

Bag: ABA Certified home compostable
Label: Recyclable
Valve (on bags larger than 250g): General waste
Coffee ordered online is shipped in a recyclable cardboard box

Brewing this coffee

We recommend brewing this coffee 15–49 days post-roast. If pre-ground, brew as soon as possible. Our advice on storing coffee.

1:3
dose:yield
ratio

To brew on espresso, we recommend using 20g of beans (dose) to get 60g of espresso out (yield), during 24-28 seconds.

g dose

g yield

View the how to brew espresso (single origin) guide.

1:16.7
beans:water
ratio

To brew in infusion/fed brewers (V60, Chemex) use a ratio of 1:16.7 ratio of beans:water.

g beans

g water

View full recipes and videos in our brewguides

1:14.3
beans:water
ratio

To brew in immersion brewers (plunger, AeroPress, Kalita, batch brewer) we recommend using a 1:14.3 ratio of beans:water

g beans

g water

View full recipes and videos in our brewguides

1:12
beans:water
ratio

To brew as cold brew we recommend using a 1:12 ratio of beans:water

g beans

g water

View full recipes and videos in our brewguides

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

Varietals

Marsellesa varietal

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.