Roaster's Choice: Single Origin

When we set out to explore additional offerings from Honduras, we connected with Banjamin Paz from Beneficio San Vicente in the town of Pena Blanca, at the foot of Santa Barbara Mountains.  This region of Honduras is celebrated for consistently producing some of the most exciting coffee in all of Central America.  The unique climate created by the interaction between the mountains and Honduras' largest body of fresh water, Lake Yojoa, cause coffees at higher elevations to develop very slowly. Cooler temperature from lingering lake-effect fog can cause harvests from the highest farms to come in months later than those at lake level.

Benjamin came through with several recommendations and we will be featuring these coffee throughout the beginning of 2023.  Our first selection is from a producer named Nelson Ramirez.  Nelson took over this farm in 2007 and named it in honor of his mother, Cheli.  A trained agronomist from the Honduras' renowned Zamarano University, Nelson sought to build up the farm to output coffee at a scale not usually seen in the area.  He eschewed the local preference for the Pacas variety, instead planting Catuai, a dwarf cultivar that allows for extremely dense planting.  More coffee plants means more coffee beans. Nelson's harvest's were huge compared to those his neighbors, outputting several hundred bags of cherry compared to dozens. 

He invested in the infrastructure of his farm, first by increasing the capacity of his fermentation and washing tanks, then he constructed a multi-layered parabolic drying house to more carefully dry the coffee as a benefit to quality.  Year after year, production grew and grew until a personal health crisis caused Nelson to re-asses his intentions with the farm.  Over the past five years, he has converted the farm over completely to a certified organic production. He's had to drastically reduce the number of trees on his farm to allow for more natural sunlight and airflow, which naturally helps to cut back on leaf fungus that would otherwise have to be controlled with chemical fungicides. 

Even with these dramatic reductions in volume compared to his conventional crops, Nelson continues to produce a lot of coffee with incredible quality of flavor.  We're tasting a butterscotch sweetness over a pleasant base of chocolate an almond.

Process: Washed

Profile: Butterscotch. Chocolate. Almond.