Honduras
Las Acacias

Washed process Catuai

Flavour: panella, ripe pear, vanilla

Body: Acidity:

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.

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.

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: 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 (filter + espresso)

Varietals

Catuai varietal

Created by the Instituto Agronomico do Campinas in Brasil, Catuai is a hybrid varietal between Caturra and Mundo Novo.

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.