Dear coffee subscriber,
We are already well in to a new harvest in Central-America and in the past week I have been visiting both Los Pirineos in El Salvador, the Caballero family in Marcala, and Jobneel and his farm Nacimiento in Honduras. They are all experiencing a challenging harvest with too much rain and a shortage on workers. Still we are sure we will be able to get good coffees from them also this year. While we wait for them to finish their harvest and the coffees to arrive later this year, we can enjoy the coffees from their last year’s harvest. These coffees still taste fresh due to the production protocols we have developed together with the farmers we buy from. Especially slow drying under shade and proper storage and packaging techniques has proven to dramatically extend the shelf life of the unroasted coffee.
This month I have selected three coffees with varying intensity of fruitiness. Two from Jobneel and his farm Nacimiento and one honey processed Pacamara from Los Pirineos. Read more about the coffees below or check out our monthly subscription tasting video on Youtube.
As always, thank you for your loyalty and we hope you will like this month’s coffees.
– Tim W
Pacas (1st & 4th bag)
Flavour notes
Stone fruits, red berries & herbal
Producer
Jobneel Caceres Dios
Harvest
April 2024
Origin
El Cielito, Santa Barbara, Honduras
Process
Washed
Cultivar
Pacas
For a long time, we have asked Jobneel to separate his coffees by cultivar and harvest date. As a result, we have not only received coffees with different flavour profiles due to variations in cultivars, but we have also noticed that flavour intensity tends to increase from the start of the harvest in January/February towards the end of the harvest in June. This is most likely because the later pickings are harvested from the higher altitudes on the farm.
This particular lot comes from the lower part of Finca Nacimiento and is from the middle of the harvest, picked in April. The altitude in this part of the farm is around 1,500–1,600 metres above sea level, which results in medium-intense acidity with subtle fruity flavours and a chocolatey finish.
Los Pirineos Pacamara (2nd & 5th bag)
Flavour notes
Winey, stone fruits & cacao nibs
Producer
Diego Baraona
Harvest
February 2024
Origin
Tecapa-Chinameca, Usulutan, El Salvador
Process
Honey
Cultivar
Pacamara
This is a sweet and distinctly fruity Pacamara from Los Pirineos. Because it was honey-processed (meaning the parchment coffee was dried with the mucilage still on), you can clearly taste some subtle fermented flavours that remind me of strawberries and ripe stone fruits. These flavours are created when the mucilage slightly ferments while the coffee is drying on raised beds under shade nets.
I often find honey-processed coffees to have a rough texture and finish, but this lot was so sweet and smooth, with just subtle fermenty notes, that I could not resist buying it while visiting in March last year. Producing such clean honey-processed coffees is probably the result of the skilful drying process implemented at Los Pirineos. They turn and mix the coffees constantly throughout the day during drying to ensure even drying and to prevent the coffees from being affected by uncontrolled fermentation.
Cielito Lindo (3rd & 6th bag)
Flavour notes
Forest berries, herbal & cacao
Producer
Jobneel Caceres Dios
Harvest
May 2024
Origin
El Cielito, Santa Barbara, Honduras
Process
Washed
Cultivar
Ihcafe 90
Cielito Lindo is a small parcel of land owned by Extreberto Caceres Gutierrez, the father of Jobneel Caceres Dios, who owns Finca Nacimiento.
Both farms are situated at the top of the El Cielito branch of the Santa Barbara mountain in Honduras, with Cielito Lindo located at the very top, just below a forest reserve. The high altitude and moist, cool climate make this one of the most unique areas for growing coffee in Honduras. Since Cielito Lindo is at the very peak of the mountain, it has become difficult for Extreberto to manage his farm, as he is now well over 80 years old. The only way to reach the farm is by walking up extremely steep trails, and the only way to transport the coffee down is by using donkeys to carry the bags down the hills. For this reason, Jobneel now takes care of the hard work on the farm, while Extreberto helps with other tasks such as drying and sorting the coffee.
You might not know that we actually bought coffee from Extreberto as far back as 2008 at the Cup of Excellence. I really loved his fruity coffee and was shocked when I discovered that it came from a Catimor cultivar, the Ihcafe 90. I liked the coffee so much that I decided to visit the farm in 2009 to see if we could start buying directly from Extreberto. My intention was to meet him, but instead, I was greeted by his son, Jobneel—and that was the start of a long relationship and the work we have done together over the past decade. (Read more about that here.)
We normally do not get our hands on coffee from Cielito Lindo for two reasons. First, Extreberto likes to submit his coffee to the Cup of Excellence, where he has achieved many good placements in the competition, resulting in great prices. Second, due to the high altitude and slow ripening, the coffee is typically harvested very late in the year. By the time the coffee from Cielito Lindo is dried and ready for export, we have usually already shipped our coffees from Nacimiento.
Due to a slight shift in harvest cycles, we have managed to purchase a few lots from Cielito Lindo in recent years, and we are happy to be able to roast and offer this unique coffee once again.