HONDURAS | Los Encinos

Santos Ismael López built his farm one harvest at a time. He started young, with a small plot, and reinvested the return from each season until it grew to the 3.5 hectares he works today in Guazpololo, La Paz. Coffee is the livelihood that supports his family, and he intends to keep them part of it for years to come.

This year brought a milestone: his coffee reached the international market for the first time, at a price that will lift his family and fund the farm's next stage. He tends the land traditionally, clearing with machete and azadón and feeding the soil by hand. At harvest, a team of three picks only ripe cherries, floats them to sort out any defects, depulps the same day, ferments for 24 hours, then dries the parchment slowly on solar beds over 20 days.

The variety is IH90, a Honduran cultivar usually grown lower down and rarely given the spotlight. Santos grows it at 1,800m, high for the variety, and the altitude rewards the cup with more sweetness and clarity than IH90 is often given credit for.

Produced by Santos Ismael López in the Guazpololo region of La Paz, this Honduras | Los Encinos selection represents the specific terroir of Honduras · Guazpololo, La Paz. Grown at 1800 masl, this lot features the IH90 varietal, a cultivar often utilized in the region for its adaptability and performance. As a washed coffee, the processing method emphasizes the inherent characteristics of the bean by removing the fruit flesh before drying, which typically results in a cleaner, more focused cup profile compared to other methods.

Sourced by St. Ali, this coffee highlights the ongoing development of high-altitude production in La Paz. When evaluating the nuances of such a specific origin, tasters often find it helpful to reference the flavor wheel to identify the subtle complexities that emerge from the interplay between the IH90 varietal and the local climate. This entry serves as a snapshot of the meticulous work performed by producers like López to bring distinct regional profiles to the global market.