Honduras San Jose Wil Armijo

Wil Edilberto Armijo started working in coffee as child, on the farms of his father and grandfather. This was in Yaro, about 100 miles east of where he currently resides. He and his wife decided to move to Santa Barbara region about 30 years ago where they opened a general store. Not long after, they were presented with an opportunity to buy some land in San Jose de los Andes, where Wil returned to his coffee growing roots. Their farm, El Paraíso, is a little more than 12 hectares, 8 of which are planted in coffee. About 25% of the farm is planted in Pacas variety, an older mutation of Bourbon that's quite common in Honduras. Wil built out his own wet mill where he processes his coffee down to the dried parchment. The coffee fruit is removed with a depulper, then the mucilage-covered green beans are fermented without water for around 16 hours to break down the remaining fruit. He has a small covered room where he dries his coffee over the course of 2-3 weeks. His farm sits at 1550 meters above sea level just outside the village of San Jose de los Andes, in the Las Vegas Municipality of western Honduras.