Honduras Copan Lempira - anaerobic natural

Variety: Lempira
Anaerobic natural, 1400-1500m
Cup Score: 87

Luis Edgar Romero is a young producer who is only 24 years old, who has just a small half manzana plot of land in area of Villanueva, San Pedro, Copan. With his mother Sonia Marilú Torrez  who owns the land they have worked hard to plant it with the variety Lempira.

In between the coffee trees, there are fruit trees and other native trees that can be used for timber. These trees help to provide shade for the coffee and also provide an environment that helps to produce specialty coffee. Luis is an associate of Aruco and also works at the coop helping to maintain the machinery. The coop has supported them financially to look after the farm pre harvest and support them with the production of a specialty micro lot. He hopes to be able to get more land and to raise the volume of coffee they are producing. The producers will receive about 70% of the FOB price for their micro lots. This year the harvest for all producers was extremely difficult with increased rains during the harvest and a lack of pickers meaning a large amount of coffee was lost from either falling to the ground or swelling and splitting on the tree.

All the processing for the ML’s takes place at the Aruco mill to centralize and have greater control over the process to create consistent procedures but also to reduce the risk of the producer. The mill is also at 800 masl which gives a drier more stable climate to dry the coffee compared to up at the farms where the weather can be less predictable. The coffee will be delivered to the mill where they assess the cherry (take Brix) and decide on the process for the coffees depending on space and what the producer has done already. The cherry is cleaned, washed, and then floated to remove any immatures.

The coffee cherries were fermented for 72 hours in the mucilage of previously pulped coffee. The pH is regularly checked to not go below 4.5 and they also assess the smell as well, as a marker. At the end of the 72 hours the coffee is washed and cleaned. The coffee is then taken to the beds, where it is dried for between 20-30 days.

Recommended preparation:

Espresso (portafilter)

Moka Pot