Honduras Coffee

All neighboring countries have complex coffee production: Guatemala, El Salvador, and to some extent, Nicaragua. However, what is lacking is the quality of coffee processing, the capital of modernization of dry mills, and the unique “name” in the consumer market. Honduras is primarily known as the source of commercial coffee, not professional. It is still the main source of low-cost Arabic coffee to large roasting companies. This means that even a high-quality Honduras does not always get a good price. In fact, many of them are smuggled from Copan and Santa Barbara to Guatemala. Without high quality prices, farmers, factories and exporters are not motivated to bear additional costs and will help to realize the quality potential of coffee. As a result, Honduran coffee ends up as a mild blender rather than a single source or farm-specific coffee. This is a vicious circle.

We have provided many opponents of Guatemalan coffee from the Santa Barbara and Copan areas, and found good quality in the Ocotopeque and southern areas near Nicaragua. One problem in Honduras is the proper drying of the coffee after the wet treatment. Some places are wet and damp, and coffee can be destroyed in the rain. The southern part of the Makala region has a cooler climate, although coffee does not have the brilliance of the northern region.

We started looking for coffee in Honduras in 2003 and I was able to judge at the first Honduran Special Coffee Competition in San Pedro Sula. This event is the predecessor of the annual winners competition since then and helped to discover the high quality coffee in Honduras. The ultuatum of this trip was to find some really special Honduran coffee for Sweet Maria. I met Chris Cowley there. For us, we are buying great coffee and buying it at the standard price.

Like other countries, Honduras is diverse, so I can't say it's a single entity: Copan or Santa Barbara or El Paraiso or Ocotpec's coffee are all different. The largest growing area is Santa Barbara, and coffee is also grown in Copan, Ocotepeque, Lempira, La Paz and El Paraiso. Coffee grown between 1500 and 2000 meters above sea level is the highest name of SHG and grows strictly. The overall cup test has lower acidity than other Central Americans and has a distinct sweet caramel taste in the cup.

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