Honduras Finca Lolita

Where in the world?

What’s the story?

If you’ve been with us for a while, you know we have a longstanding relationship with the COMSA organic co-op in La Paz, in the south of Honduras. The co-op lots provide our Great Taste Award winning Serendipia and then we sometimes have microlots, like this belter from the improbably young Moisés Castañeda at Finca Lolita.

This coffee has a wonderful fruit driven sweetness and creamy body. The pineapple note is viscous and sweetened like those little pineapple cubes, and also has a boozy, funky character. This especially comes through when brewed as an espresso. There is also a light, clean and clear mid note of peach and then a delicious long finish of nectarine. It’s a super refreshing filter brew, with an extremely pleasing fruity complexity, balanced by a sweet viscous body.

The farm, established in 1990, is now managed by Moisés, a 21-year-old third-generation coffee producer who inherited the farm from his family. Despite his young age, Moisés has been involved in coffee farming for three years, driven by a passion for coffee and a desire to continue his family’s legacy. The farm primarily cultivates Lempira, Bourbon, and Parainema coffee varieties, with 10 to 12 of its 18 manzanas (approximately 17 to 21 acres) dedicated to coffee cultivation.

One significant challenge this harvest for Moisés was the lower availability of people to do manual farm labour. Harvesting is an intense time of work as picking only ripe red cherries is skilled and hard work, and finding these seasonal workers can be a challenge. But pressing on and committing to top quality picking and processing has resulted in a delicious natural process coffee

Our mate Suita who sourced this coffee for us had a chat with Moisés to understand the importance of the opportunity of opening new markets for his coffee.

“You are the last link in coffee cultivation, you are the ones in charge of enchanting buyers with Honduran coffee and your company itself!

When they ask, what is this cup of coffee made of? Remember that it is made with love, faith, and hope from the Honduran coffee producing families. Thank you for choosing our “Catracho” coffee!”

I mean, it’s a pleasure. What a coffee.

A Step-by-Step processing method description
1. Harvesting: The coffee cherries are selectively harvested by local pickers from nearby communities. The cherries used in the micro-lot were handpicked at the end of February, ensuring they were at their peak ripeness.

2. Processing: After harvesting, the coffee cherries were transported to Moisés’ home for processing. The cherries were unloaded and left to ferment for 72 hours (three days) in an anaerobic environment.

3. Drying: Following fermentation, the coffee cherries were dried on a concrete patio near Moisés’ home. The drying process took approximately 15 days. For this batch, the weather was sunny, providing ideal conditions for drying.

4. Coffee Varietals: This micro-lot consists of Lempira coffee, a variety well-suited to the farm’s elevation.Throughout the process, Moisés personally oversees each step, ensuring that the quality of the coffee remains high from start to finish.

Brewing Recipe