December 2024 Discovery Coffee

HONDURAS | El Lesquin (Hugo Abraham Chinchilla)

RUM & RAISIN, FLORENTINE

REGION | La Unión, Corquin, Copán Department

PROCESS | Natural

SPECIES | Arabica 

VARIETY | Lempira

ALTITUDE | 1600 MASL

ABOUT HUGO ABRAHAM CHINCHILLA

Hugo Abraham Chinchilla is 33 years old, and owns the farm El Lesquin. The farm is planted with Parainema, Ihcafe 90 and Lempira.

The Lempira varietal is closely related to Catimor, itself a hybrid between two popular varietals Timor and Caturra. Lempira bushes are relatively small and produce high yields, but as a varietal it is susceptible to leaf rust in Honduras. This creates challenges for farmers such as Hugo in keeping his crops healthy all the way to fruition.

Hugo has been producing specialty coffee for two years, and is thankful for all the help he has received from the Aruco Cooperative to help him achieve this. He is young and motivated to produce specialty coffee as this has given him a good living from coffee, on which can support his family. The farm is around 26ha in total, on which there is great diversity of birds, razorbills, owls, cotuzas, and animals like rabbits, squirrels, armadillos, snakes, raccoons. There are also orchids and mountain ferns among others.

HISTORY OF COFFEE IN HONDURAS

Honduras is the biggest coffee-producing country in Central America with a landscape dominated by smallholders and cooperatives. The country reached its prominent position thanks to a robust national strategy to improve infrastructure and increase productivity that gained traction in the 1970s. The productivity boom wasn’t, however, immediately followed by good post-harvesting practices and Honduras was left with a reputation for big volume, low-quality coffee. Record-breaking scores in recent years of Cup of Excellence show this is changing and the country is gaining more attention from high-end roasters.

There are 6 coffee-growing regions in the country: Copán, Opalaca, Montecillos, Comayagua, El Paraiso and Agalta. Copán, in the West, and Comayagua, in the heart of the country, lead Honduras’ production. The national grading system separates coffees according to altitude: the exportable grades are Strictly High Grown (SHG) for coffees grown above 1200 m above sea level and High Grown (HG) for coffees grown between 700 and 1200 m. Harvest runs from November to April.

Traditionally, most coffees from Honduras are fully washed. In the cup, this origin shows a big body and intense sweetness, often followed by berry-like juiciness and mild acidity. Quality has seen a jump in the last decade as well as the introduction of natural, honey and experimental processing methods, resulting in a wide variety of flavour profiles. Honduran coffees have become cleaner and more transparent but retain their characteristic texture and sweetness. The country is also one of the larger producers of Fairtrade and organic certified coffees, which are produced by cooperatives in large volumes.

📸 Photo: World Coffee Research https://varieties.worldcoffeeresearch.org/varieties/lempira