The first time I met the Caballero family was in 2004 at an exhibition in Trieste, Italy during a cupping of the 2004 Honduras Cup of Excellence. The coffee that I liked the most happened to be grown by a gentleman called Fabio Caballero. Don Fabio was delighted that I liked his coffee and asked me to come to Honduras to cup in the Cup of Excellence in 2005. Luckily I got a spot at the jury and permission to go from my old employer and ever since, Honduras has been one of my favorite coffee origins. Not only because of the emotional aspects, but because they grow fabulous and varied coffee and also have a large potential for improvement. (Of course it also helps that the family Caballero are among the most hospitable and friendly producers I know.)

Don Fabio, who has been rewarded by the parliament in Honduras for his commitment to develop quality coffee in the country, inherited large areas of land from his father who was one of the pioneers of coffee cultivation in Honduras. After many years of poor profits, he decided to hand out land to his children, and especially to his daughter Marysabel Caballero and her husband Moises Herrera. They are currently overseeing more than 200 hectares of coffee and ensures that processing is done according to standards.

At the farms  they produce organic fertilizer made from cow and chicken manure mixed with pulp from coffee cherries and other organic material. This is used in addition to some artificial fertilizer to ensure that the coffee plants get the nutrients they need. The soil is analyzed annually to
provide proper nourishment to the coffee. All water used for processing is filtered before it is released into nature again.
There is no use of pesticides on the farms as fungus and other coffee diseases is controlled by controlling the amount of shade.
Oranges, avocados, flowers, bananas and other fruits is also grown at the farms, but mainly for the pickers to eat and to create biodiversity at the farms that ensures good growing conditions and shade for the coffee trees.

The local pickers that are hired to harvest the coffee get paid more than is normal in the area because they are required to sort the berries during picking. Therefore the pickers are equipped with 2 sacks during picking. One bag for ripe coffee berries, the other is for immature and damaged coffee.

Don Fabio, Marysabel and Moises has always focused on quality leading to getting 3rd price at the annual SCAA “Coffee of the year” competition in 2010. They have also done well in the Cup of Excellence for many years, as one of the few producers from their area. As a result of this they have established close relationships with roasters like Stumptown, Intelligentsia, Counter Culture Coffee and now us at Tim Wendelboe.

One of the benefits of working with the Caballeros is that they have a good dialogue with their customers. They like to experiment with the coffee they produce. Everything they do at the farms is documented and they invest considerable time and resources both in new equipment and planting of new coffee varieties in order to improve the quality of the coffee. Because of this, we bought  7 different lots from 3 of their many farms. All 7 lots are processed differently  and come from various picking dates. This gives a large variation in tastes, something we find incredibly interesting. Of course,  we will  sell all the lots  separately.

Farm: El Puente
Producer: Marysabel Caballero & Moises Herrera
Lot size: 690 Kg
Harvest: February 2011
Origin: Chinacla, La Paz, Honduras.
Growing conditions: Around 1500  m.a.s. Under shade trees.
Farm size: -
Botanical variety: Catuaì
Process:  Ripe cherries are hand picked by local pickers.
The pickers are payed extra to sort ripe cherries from the unripe while they are picking. Sorting is done by simply putting the cherries in separate baskets.
After de-pulping the mucilage is removed with the use of an aqua pulper. Then the parchment is fermented for 12 hours before it is  washed using african washing techniques which helps sorting floaters and undeveloped beans from the heavier, more developed coffee. After washing, the beans have been soaked for 24 hours in running clean water. Then they are dried from 10 to 14 days on cement patios.

Taste description:
Floral aromas and flavors of berries and plums.
Winey acidity. Slim and transparent mouthfeel with short refreshing finish.

You can buy this coffee in our webshop.