Honduras Romero Varela - Filter

£17.00

by Lucid Coffee Roasters

Honduras Romero Varela - Filter

£17.00

Select Size

250g

1 Kg

Select Grind

Wholebean

French Press

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Honduras Romero Varela - Filter

Thank you Semilla coffee for introducing us to some amazing lots from Honduras, This is the first time we have had a Honduran coffee on our offer list and couldn't be happier!

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Producers + Mill:

Leyvis Marely Romero is one of the newest growers to enter the Sueños de Semilla project. At just 32 years old, she’s belongs to a generational smallholder family to seek a better future through coffee.
From her farm in the hamlet of Las Botijas, Comayagua, she is continuing the legacy began by her grandparents who were travelling coffee pickers who moved to lower altitude, warmer regions in the country to pick coffee as a means of subsistence.
Through their travels, they began collecting seeds that they brought back to Las Botijas to plant in their own land to start their own farms. This land is now where her parents and siblings manage their own plots, and Leyvis’ chapter of this story began in 2022 when she planted her first parcel of
Parainema and Pacamara.

This year was Leyvis’ second ever harvest and her first time ever exporting her coffee under her own name. Like most of her family, including her father and brothers who are also part of the project, they have toiled largely in obscurity in their remote region of Comayagua. Here, like in many places, the dominant mode of sale is de-pulped and wet, commonly referred to as pre-secado (pre-dried). Despite this complete lack of support and feedback on their coffee, the Romero family has managed to produce some of the best coffees we’ve ever purchased from Honduras – a testament to their dedication to improve the quality of their coffee so they can access better prices and a more stable market. Sadly, in Honduras as in many countries, higher quality doesn’t translate directly into a better future. It requires a reliable and supportive partner, and we hope to offer just that to them.

This area boasts a unique microclimate so that despite its relatively low altitude, high quality coffee is still possible here. Nevertheless, disease
resistant varieties are the most successful, and varieties like the original Typica and even this Pacamara lot are becoming more and more challenging to grow.
In both cases, roya can be exceptionally devasting and requires several rounds of treatment per season to keep at bay. Even then, the quality drop
off in the Typica is obvious, and with the persistent rate of climate change affected weather variation, it will likely be challenging to maintain into the
future. For Pacamara, our response is to pay very high prices for these coffees, treating them in the range of Gesha or other high end varieties as
their costs of production are so much higher.
Leyvis shared the following words with us, the share with you, the final buyer of her coffee who will present it for the first time to the specialty consumer.

“I’m a small producer and I really hope to count on your support year after year to receive a fair price for my coffee, which will help me, my family,
and my farm a lot. I want to thank you very much for having purchased my coffee this year, I hope one day you can visit my farm. I also hope that every cup of our coffee that you drink is your favourite, as we manage a very selective process to ensure the quality so you can enjoy it, year after year.”

Semilla have also provided us with the prices paid at farm level:

Farmgate price:
23,500 Lempira/carga parchment.

Regional farmgate price (avg):
14,000 Lempira/carga parchment.

FOB Price: $5.80 USD/lb

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Varieties:

Pacamara - Originated from a cross between Pacas and Maragogipe. Incomplete pedigree selection conducted by the Salvadoran Institute of Coffee Research (ISIC). Grown primarily in El Salvador, where it is frequently dominates Cup of Excellence competitions for high cup quality.A similar variety, Maracaturra, likely originated from a natural cross between Caturra x Maragogipe in Nicaragua. Initial selections were made by the Nicaraguan Institute of Agricultural Technology (INTA) in 1976, which were never completed following the Sandinista revolution. Further selections were made by private producers in Central America, but the variety has never been stabilized. (source:World Coffee Research)

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Process:

Cherries are picked at peak ripeness and are de-pulped the same day. The seeds undergo a dry ferment in sealed bags for 50 hours before being moved to solar driers where they are dried for 25 days.

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