Honduras El Cedral Roberto Figueroa

Roberto Figueroa's farm is located in the village of El Cedral, within the Western Honduras Department of Santa Barbara, that shares a border with Guatemala. His 3.5 hectare farm sits at 1600 meters above sea level, and planted in Pacas variety, a natural mutation of Bourbon widely cultivated in Honduras and other parts of Central America. Roberto ferments his coffee for around 24 hours without water, after which, he rinses four times in clean water to remove the remaining fruit. The coffee then moves to indoor, "solar" drying rooms where it is dried on raised tables for around 2 weeks. We found out about Roberto's coffee through Beneficio San Vicente, a mill and export operation in the nearby town of Peña Blanca, who have built a reputation over the past 25 years of working to put Honduras on the map as a source for high quality microlots. They've moved away from the volume-oriented business model, instead pushing to isolate quality through training programs with the farmers they work with, as well as continuing to improve their ability to manage small lots at their mill.