Dear subscriber,
This month, we are sending out the classic Catuaí coffee from Finca El Puente, as well as their newer cultivar, Batian, which we hope to buy more and more of in the coming years.
You will also have the opportunity to taste the first harvest from one of the many trials we are conducting with Biofilia to compare biological farming techniques with conventional ones. This is a project we are very invested in, and it will continue for the next two years. Our hope is that, after that, we can begin the process of transitioning all the farms we buy from to regenerative farming.
If you want to learn more about the project, I highly recommend listening to Episode 43 of our podcast, which I recorded with Lalo Varona from Biofilia last year.
I hope you enjoy the coffees!
Finca El Puente Catuaí (1st & 4th bag)
Marysabel and Moises produce a lot of coffee of the Catuaí cultivar, but not all lots are produced in the same way. Some are dried on patios, while others are dried in mechanical driers or on raised beds under shade. Since I started buying coffee from Finca el Puente, I have gradually developed a protocol in cooperation with Moises and Marysabel on how to separate, process and, especially, dry and store the coffees we buy from them. They are now producing a lot of Catuaí coffee following these protocols, which is specially separated for us to choose from.
All the lots we buy are dried on raised beds in the shade and are hand-sorted and milled with extreme care and attention. It really makes a difference to the final cup. In fact, Moises was the one who first let me experiment with shade-dried coffee, and we found that the green coffee stays fresh for longer and tastes much cleaner than the patio-dried or mechanically dried coffees they produce. (In later years, Moises has adapted some of these principles and, as a result, has also managed to increase the quality and shelf life of their mechanically dried coffees.)
Finca El Puente Batian (2nd & 5th bag)
Batian is actually a Kenyan hybrid cultivar, but this particular coffee was grown in Honduras by our friends Marysabel Caballero and Moises Herrera. Some years ago, they planted a small number of these trees, and over the last few years, the quality has improved, with both productivity and quality being quite impressive. Moises and Marysabel are so happy with the Batian that they have decided to plant more of it, and it is gradually becoming one of our staple coffees from them.
This particular lot is from their first pickings of 2026. Although it is a Kenyan hybrid, it is far from being a Kenyan-style coffee in the cup. I personally find it to have a beautiful violet-like floral note, with hints of red fruits and plums.
Finca El Puente Catuaí - Biofilia (3rd & 6th bag)
This Catuaí lot was picked a little later in the harvest and comes from the plot of land where we are testing the biological growing techniques designed by Biofilia. Whether our trials have had an effect remains to be seen in the coming years, as this was the first harvest since we started the project on this farm in March 2025. You can learn more about the project in episode 43 of our podcast.
I asked Moises why he thinks this lot tastes fruitier than the other Catuaí lots we bought from him this year, which were also grown using their conventional system (which means they apply NPK fertilisers and fungicides to protect the trees from leaf rust). He believes it is because the coffee was harvested when it was extremely ripe. This makes a lot of sense, as we know that when coffee cherries are almost overripe, the resulting coffee tends to have a slightly fermented or winey flavour.
