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Honduras Coffee

by Dave Borton

Honduras coffee brewing in the open market --

If I close my eyes, breathe in deeply, and think back of our vacation, the first image that comes back is the market at La Esperanza, Honduras and the wonderful smell of the Honduras coffee brewing.

Honduras

It might come as a surprise to some but coffee's roots are not Honduras nor Central American. The Spaniards brought the plant with them, but not until the 1700's. Coffee originated in the Ethiopia area of Africa where the goatherds long ago chewed the bean at night to stay alert.

When you ride through the Honduran highlands, you are traveling through some of the finest coffee country in the world. Keep your eyes out for Honduran coffee; it is a bush that is often planted in the shade of larger trees. There are over 90 million Honduran coffee bushes in cultivation. Pictured here is an early, clear-cut coffee plantation from the turn of the century.

Coffee Bush

Honduran coffee, most of which is a rich arabica coffee, is used mainly by coffee retailers as a blending coffee but Honduran coffee certainly is good enough to stand on its own.

Honduran coffee growers have not been able to brand Honduran coffee like growers in other countries have. Walk into any grocery store and you can find a can of coffee with the tag line 100% Colombian coffee. Guatemalan and Costa Rican growers have pulled off the same type of branding in the coffee boutiques. Honduran Coffee? Not yet. (Sweet Maria's has a detailed article on Honduras coffee).

A second variety of Honduran coffee is robusta. It is grown at lower altitudes and is an inferior bean. Much of it ends up in instant coffee or inexpensive grocery blends. Trivia? These robusta Honduran coffee beans have twice the caffeine as arabica. In Costa Rica, it is actually illegal to grow robusta. That is how you keep quality up. So what determines quality in Honduran or any coffee?

Coffee Quality

The quality of coffee, not just Honduran coffee, is determined by:

  • The elevation. The higher the elevation, the better the coffee. The Honduran government, in an effort to brand Honduran coffee, has become more particular about labeling (and monitoring) strictly high grown (sometimes called strictly hard bean) coffee. The higher the altitude at which it is grown, the denser the bean. Strictly high grown coffee grows more slowly than coffee beans grown at lower altitudes, adding to the price. To meet the SHG (or SHB) criteria, the coffee must be grown at 4900 to 6400 feet.
  • The soil. The rich volcanic Honduran soils are ideal for quality coffee.
  • The climate. Honduran coffee grown in shade is superior to the coffee grown in the sun (one taste of a Vietnamese coffee reveals this). Adequate rainfall (Honduras has little irrigation to speak of) is critical for a successful crop.
  • When a bean is picked. Expensive coffees are pricey for a reason. To reach its fullest maturity, flavor and taste, a bean is best picked at its red- berry stage. Since coffee beans don't ripen uniformly, multiple pickings offer the best coffee bean (rather than a one-time, 'strip the bush' approach).
  • And last, but certainly not least, the very nature or quality of the coffee bush - - the cultivar itself. You reap what you sow. Coffee bushes will bear their first harvestable fruit 3-5 years after being planted. Bushes may last as long as 15-20 years. One bush will average 1 pound of beans a year (bumper crops are known as with any other crop if all conditions are ideal that year). Coffee does better in the shade although large fincas (plantations) now plant sun-tolerant variants, row upon row in the sun. Sun-planted coffee is a less sustainable farming practice and introduces the intensive use of chemicals.

Beans in hand

Prices for Honduran coffee in Honduras vary, depending on quality. You can expect to pay $.48 - $3.00 US per pound. I picked up a couple of pounds of coffee in the open-air market in La Esperanza for $.48 US/pound. It had a very earthy taste. The quality was about at the level of the inexpensive Asian or West African coffees that have flooded our markets in the last year, driving the Honduran coffee grower to his knees.

When buying Honduran coffee, look for one that says, Strictly High Grown, European Quality (or Style). There are excellent coffees to be had. I enjoyed the coffee at Welchez in Copan and also bought some Bella Vista (Beautiful View). If you can’t find Bella Vista elsewhere, know that it is available at a shop in the San Pedro Sula airport.

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