A bright yet sweet coffee all at once. The first thing that appears is a fresh and delicate almond, followed quickly by orange, with a candied touch that gives it a citrus spark. A milk chocolate note envelops everything and leaves an intense sweetness, with a long finish.
We love it precisely for that contrast: it is citrusy and delicate, but at the same time very sweet and enveloping. A round and lively coffee that works very well both black and with milk.
HISTORY
Finca El Jardín is located in El Matazano, in the department of La Paz, within the Montecillos mountains, one of the highest and most renowned coffee-growing regions in Honduras. The farm has belonged to the Mejía family for four generations, but the coffee that arrives here today is the result of a fairly recent change.
Mario Samuel Mejía Rodríguez inherited sixteen hectares from his father and today manages fifty-two. He studied at the National University of Agriculture and since 2017 he began converting El Jardín to specialty coffee, starting with just five hectares before bringing the entire farm into that field. For generations, only washed coffees had been produced here, as has always been done in the region; Mario was the one who began experimenting with naturals and different fermentations, something that very few people still do in that area of Honduras. His goal is to build a line of fine coffees above 88 points without abandoning the commercial line that provides work for the surrounding farmers.
What interests us most about Mario does not only happen within his farm. He set up his own export structure so as not to depend on third parties and created the "Los Compaz" producers' cooperative to help his neighbors make the same leap to specialty. He has raised his workers' wages, converted seasonal jobs into year-round stable employment, and is promoting English classes in the local schools.
This lot is precisely one of those coffees: it was produced by Eduardo Rodríguez in Ojojona and arrives at our roastery through the work of El Jardín and Los Compaz. Buying it is supporting Mario, Eduardo, and a project that is trying to change how coffee works in the entire community.
VARIETY AND PROCESSING
This lot brings together two varieties with very different histories. IHCAFE 90 is Honduran: it was developed by the Honduran Coffee Institute from a cross between the Timor Hybrid and Caturra, and belongs to the Catimor group. It was selected for its compact and productive plant, capable of producing good harvests in warm, low-altitude areas, so seeing it grown at 1,650 m above sea level (well above the range for which it was conceived) is less common than it seems: at that altitude, the fruit ripens more slowly and the bean develops more gradually. Catucaí, on the other hand, is Brazilian and emerged almost by chance from a natural cross between Icatu and Catuaí detected during trials at the former Brazilian Coffee Institute. Its name literally comes from combining the two. There are yellow-fruited and red-fruited versions, and it is a hardy, vigorous variety that is well adapted to demanding soils, which explains how it traveled from Minas Gerais to the Central American mountains.
The coffee has been washed, the most widespread processing method in specialty coffee. After harvesting, the pulp is removed from the fruit and the bean undergoes a controlled fermentation that removes the remaining mucilage, then it is washed with clean water and dried until it reaches the proper moisture level for storage. By removing the pulp before drying, the fruit barely influences the result, and what remains in the cup is the bean's own character: the variety, the soil, and the altitude at which it grew. It is a demanding process (requiring water, control of fermentation times, and careful drying) and, when done well, produces clean and defined cups, where every nuance is clearly distinguished.
RECIPE
For filter:
We use 18 g of ground coffee and 306 g of water at 90 ºC. We start with a 56 g pre-infusion and wait 45", then complete with successive pours up to 306 g in a total time of 2'30"
