Katia Duke, Natural Yellow Gesha - Honduras

Name: Katia Duke Region: Copan, Honduras Notes: pineapple sweetness, peach, loquat, golden delicious apple

Producer: Katia Duke Farm: San Isidro Variety: Yellow Gesha Process: Natural Altitude: 1,300 MASL

Brew Ratios: For pourovers, try a 1:14.2 ratio. A 1:2.1 ratio will work best for espresso.

More: We’re so honored to welcome Katia Duke’s coffee back to our menu! This marks our fourth year carrying her coffees, and she remains the very first producer we ever sourced from in Honduras, making this release especially meaningful to us.

We love seeing women lead their farms, experiment with intention, and push the boundaries of innovation while remaining rooted in sustainability. We’re especially excited to see Katia exploring different coffee varieties and processing methods, continually discovering new ways to express the potential of her farm. As we always say, when women succeed, so do their communities.

This release is a Yellow Gesha, and it impressed us from the very first sample cup. Expect juicy pineapple sweetness, notes of peach and loquat, and a vibrant, fruit-forward yet delicate cup.

Our recommendation: Let this coffee rest for three weeks off roast to experience it at its best.

About Katia Duke’s Journey

San Isidro Farm sits just fifteen minutes from the Ruinas de Copán in Honduras and has been in Katia Duke’s family for generations. Traditionally, the farm produced coffee that was sold as parchment to local intermediaries. After growing up on the land, Katia went on to study agronomy at the renowned Zamorano Agricultural School. When the 2012 roya (coffee leaf rust) epidemic devastated Honduras’s coffee crops, she was compelled to rethink everything she knew about coffee farming.

Determined to understand specialty coffee from the ground up, Katia became a certified barista and roaster, opened her own café, and began roasting and selling her family’s coffee. Over time, and through many conversations, her father entrusted her with plots of land to farm independently. Five years of experimentation later, her efforts began to pay off.

Katia’s journey wasn’t without resistance. Early on, many people refused to work for her simply because she was a woman. Today, San Isidro thrives with a strong, harmonious team and a growing presence in the global coffee community.

Beyond coffee, Katia has become a community leader, helping build a school and support local nutrition programs. Her journey is a powerful reminder that coffee can be more than a crop or a livelihood. In the hands of dedicated producers like Katia, it can become a vehicle for lasting change, community empowerment, and a legacy that reaches far beyond the farm.

 

*IF you would like this coffee ground, please specify brew method in comments.

Produced by Katia Duke in the Copan region of Honduras, this Yellow Gesha lot represents a meticulous approach to cultivation. As a natural-processed coffee, the cherries are dried with the fruit intact, a technique often employed to enhance the inherent sweetness and complexity of the bean. While Gesha varieties are widely celebrated in the specialty industry for their distinct floral and tea-like clarity, this specific offering from Little Waves Coffee Roasters highlights a vibrant profile characterized by pineapple sweetness, peach, loquat, and golden delicious apple.

When evaluating such nuanced profiles, enthusiasts often consult a flavor wheel to better articulate the interplay between these fruit-forward notes. Grown at 1300 masl, this selection showcases the unique terroir of Copan and the careful post-harvest management required to maintain the integrity of the Yellow Gesha varietal throughout the drying process.