Honduras Alejandro Navarro

Region: San Andres, Lempira
Altitude: 1,760 m.a.s.l.
Variety: Catuaí, IH90
Processing: Washed

Tasting Notes: Well balanced and delicate this coffee has layered sweetness and acidity. Golden Delicious apple and Conference pear fruitiness is elevated by gooseberry, camomile and elderflower complexity.

Like 95 percent of farmers in Honduras, Alejandro Navarro is a smallholder, growing coffee on his 3.5 hectare farm, Liquidámbar. He grew up working on his father’s coffee farm and acted as the intermediary between the farm and exporters, transporting the harvest to them on the backs of mules, traveling long distances on difficult roads where there was no access to cars. At 21 he enlisted in the army where he would serve for 15 years before returning to work in coffee. In 2017 he and his wife, Olympia, moved back to the region in which they both had grown up and started their own farm. They planted Catuaí and IH90 varieties and, more recently, renovated some lots with Parainema, a rust resistant variety developed by the Instituto Hondureño del Café (IHCAFE).

Since 2022, Alejandro and Olympia have been processing microlots like this one for sale to the specialty market. Their wet mill is located at the centre of the farm so after the coffee is picked in the morning they carry it to the mill in the afternoon for depulping. They dry ferment the coffee in a tiled concrete tank overnight and then wash it three times before spreading it out to dry on a plastic tarp for six to eight days.

In the past Honduras hasn’t often featured on our lineup but we’ve been building a relationship with an importer known for their excellent Honduran coffees, so look out for more coffees from this origin in future years. In 2023 Langdon Coffee Merchants held a cupping in Edinburgh where Ludwika tasted their coffee and met one of their producers for the first time. The following harvest she bought a wonderfully fruity natural lot grown by Alex Ponce. This year we chose this washed lot because it exemplifies the best  cup qualities of the origin.

The Lempira Region

San Andres, in the Lempira district, is an important coffee region in Honduras, known for the productivity of its farms and the production of dense and consistent coffee beans. It is located at the foothills of El Congolón mountain, which was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2010. It was where Indio Lempira, the famed Lenca leader of Honduran indigenous resistance to the Spanish, is said to have been killed by treachery in the 1530s. Before Spanish colonists took control Lenca culture flourished here and people still find ancient artifacts. Today, coffee serves as the driving force behind the local economy and holds significant cultural value.

Though coffee has been cultivated in this area for many years, it wasn't until around five years ago that the high quality potential of the region's coffee was appreciated. Since then, efforts have been made to explore new markets and promote coffee from this region. Despite the region being relatively dry, coffee thrives in the hard climatic conditions and the shallow but nutrient rich soil. This progress is evident in the increased participation of San Andres' coffees in the Cup of Excellence Honduras competitions, with five finalists ranking in the top 15 in the 2023 competition.

Coffee in Honduras

With over 120,000 coffee farms, coffee is Honduras’s main agricultural export crop. According to World Coffee Research, over the last two decades Honduras has risen to become the dominant exporter of coffee in Central America. They exported double the number of bags from 2019 to 2021 compared to the same period ten years earlier, from 2009 to 2011. 

The origin produces only Arabica coffee, but historically they’ve been known for lower quality commercial grade coffee, not specialty grade. Today however, the country produces a wide range of qualities, from commercial to specialty, and within specialty the processing methods and flavour profiles are wide ranging, from tropical juicy anaerobic naturals to clean bright washed coffees. 

Despite general political and economic instability (nearly 80 percent of rural Hondurans live in poverty, according to Human Rights Watch) Honduras has one of the most organized coffee sectors in Central America. Established in 1970, the national coffee organization, IHCAFE, supports farmers to improve and maintain the infrastructure behind coffee production and to connect smallholders with the international market. With support from the USDA they collaborate with World Coffee Research to improve coffee breeding and agronomic research, which is crucial development to make coffee a sustainable, reliable crop.

A note about packaging

Our coffee comes packaged in beautiful and hard wearing tins. It is important to keep those beans away from air and light (see our blog post about coffee storage) and we think tins are the very best way of keeping those guys fresh. 

Tins can of course be easily recycled (with other metals) but the very best and most environmentally conscious thing to do with them is to refill them. Find out how to refill or dispose of your Steampunk packaging HERE.