Honduras

Sagastume Honey

Sweet and ripe honey process

This honey process lot showcases ripe red grape and blackcurrant, alongside a deep toffee sweetness.

Our second year working with the Sagastume family in Santa Barbara, Honduras.

Producer
Yeltsin Sagastume
Coffee expression
A fruity & balanced coffee

Regular price: $25.00
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Sale price: $25.00
incl. vat/tax
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This honey process lot showcases ripe red grape and blackcurrant, alongside a deep toffee sweetness.

Honey Parainema

Sagastume

The Sagastume family have been involved in coffee in Santa Barbara for generations, long before the recent recognition of the potential of the area. The family have worked hard to earn their place in the speciality coffee market, through tireless research and savvy investment, and actively seeking out opportunities. Pedro Sagastume is the head of the family, and as he grows older, he has begun to split the family’s land between his sons Yeltsin, Yerin and Heyvis. Coffee production is still a family effort; all of the picked cherry is still processed at the wet mill next to the family home. This Parainema was grown on one of the plots managed by Yeltsin, harvested in April of 2022. Parainema is a native Honduran varietal, created in response to a nematode outbreak in the mid 80’s. The Honduran Coffee Institute carefully selected from strains of Sarchimor hybrids, looking for nematode resistance, while maintaining positive attributes in the cup and a degree of disease resistance. This lot was process using a honey process; de-pulped, and dried directly on raised beds underneath plastic solar drying tunnels.

This lot is showcasing ripe fruit notes, reminiscent of red grape and blackcurrant, balanced by a deep toffee sweetness. We have tasted several lots from the Sagastume family in recent years, and have been consistently impressed. This year, we have also been able to purchase a small lot of SL28 from the Sagastumes, and hope to continue our collaboration into the upcoming harvest.

Honduras

Beneficio San Vicente

We have been impressed with many Honduran lots over the last few years, but especially over the past couple of seasons. Quality seems to be improving at a very high rate, partly thanks to the work of visionaries like Benjamin Paz and his company Beneficio San Vicente in helping producers to realise the quality of their coffees, and connecting them to like-minded roasters. The Santa Barbara region provides some challenges to those hoping to grow high quality coffee. It stretches from the border with Guatemala into the central highlands, home to some of the highest altitude in the country.

Santa Barbara also sits close to a large area of jungle, leading to high humidity and a great deal of rainfall, especially during harvest season, which creates great difficulty in consistently drying coffees. The low night temperatures here, along with the wet climate, can also lead to ‘freezing’ of the coffee plant, where cherries cease to mature on the tree, leading to crop loss. However, all of these challenges only serve to strengthen the resolve of the farmers here, and the vast majority of Honduran Cup of Excellence winners have come from Santa Barbara since the inception of the competition here in 2005.

Technical Data

Producer
Yeltsin Sagastume
Region
Santa Barbara
Altitude
1500 masl
Varietal
Parainema
Process
Honey
Harvest
April 2022

Honey Process

With the honey process a certain amount of mucilage and pulp are allowed to remain on the coffee bean during depulping. The cover will stay with the bean during fermentation and drying thereby contributing to the sugars absorbed by the bean and affecting the flavour notes of the final cup. The amount of mucilage remaining defines the type of honey process - white, yellow, red or black in ascending order of mucilage concentration. If they are processed properly, the coffees can take on quite a lot of sweetness and flavours while remaining clean.

Raised drying beds (sometimes referred to as African drying beds) are often preferable when working with honey processed coffees, because of the additional airflow they allow. The air ensures that the beans dry evenly and reduces the incidence of fungi and bacteria formation. On the other hand, some farmers are accustomed to using sun-exposed patio drying that require a regular raking of beans to avoid moulds. While total fermentation and drying time depend on such choices as well as ambient temperature and moisture levels, red honey processing easily needs two weeks from depulping until drying has completed.