This farm has been producing high-quality specialty coffee for several years, but this year made a slight change in processing. This year the lot was soaked in clean water for 12 hours, after the fermenting and washing, similar to the Kenyan style of processing. This practice is sometimes used in Honduras to give a more transparent and complex flavour profile to the coffee.

Roger Antonio Domínguez Márquez comes from a long line of coffee producers, who have been producing coffee by hand for many years. Today the family incorporates some new practices in addition to the traditional farming techniques, to maintain production levels while maintaining quality and prioritising the conservation of the native forest around them.

The farm has an abundance of plants including plums, avocados and sweet gum and is home to animals such as squirrels, rabbits and wildcats.

A protected name

The Las Acacias farm is in the sub-region of Márcala, which when it comes to coffee production, is a protected geographic name under the same classifications as you might be familiar from wine (Italy’s Chianti) and cheeses (Switzerland’s Gruyère, and Italy’s Gorgonzola and Parmigiano Reggiano).

One benefit of the protected name is that it requires full traceability of the product from farm to export: also one of the key factors in shifting from commodity farming to exporting specialty coffee such as this.

Tropical climates

Honduras has a tropical climate, with but the rain that makes the land so lush creates problems when trying to dry the coffee beans after processing.

At Las Acacias, they’ve built covered drying beds, which are greenhouse-like structures with plastic sheets to shelter the drying coffee from the rain.

Covered drying beds at Las Acacias

You can compare this to the photos of other drying beds in Ethiopia, where rain is less of a concern.

The tropical climate can also cause problems when coffee is warehoused in hot conditions before export, something that's improving in line with the higher quality focus of the specialty side of Honduras coffee.

Read more about Honduran coffee in the (UK) Telegraph.

 

Sourcing and ingredients

100% Catuai coffee beans, provided by Silo 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.

Producer

Roger Antonio Domínguez Márquez

Country

Honduras

Region

Márcala, La Paz

Altitude

1400m above sea level

Varietals

Catuai

Process

Washed

Harvested

March 2015

Body

Medium

Acidity

Medium

Tasting notes

Panella, ripe pear, vanilla

Roast style

Omni