Honduras - Finca Cascaritas Lot 19

Moises Hidardo Hernandez is a fourth-generation coffee farmer and the founder of Cafés Especiales Mercedes Ocotepeque (CAFESMO). His great-grandfather had been among the pioneering party that first brought in coffee and fundamental coffee cultivation knowledge to Honduras from El Salvador, which prompted the start of their coffee farming projects that have flourished into their current specialty coffee focus and expertise.

It was when Hidardo recognized the yet untapped potential of Ocotepeque and, its neighboring department, Copan’s microclimates to produce high-quality and differentiated specialty coffees, that he made it a personal vocation to contribute to making Honduran coffee known globally as more than just a source of commodity, supermarket coffees but a distinctive single-origin, specialty coffee producing country.

Finca Cascaritas is the farm he inherited from his father and currently operates with his mother, herself a third-generation coffee farmer. Together they grow several coffee varieties such as Parainema, Bourbon, and Obata. The farm sits on hilly and tree-covered terrain covering 3.5 hectares at altitudes1230 MASL to 1300 MASL. The diversity of plant life includes pine trees native to the region, as well as banana, American walnut and hazel pine.

Meanwhile, CAFESMO is a collective of 250+ smallholder farmers based in the Honduran coffee-growing region close to Guatemala and El Salvador.

Their coffee farms are bordered by the country’s highest peaks, Cerro Pital in the west, and the Guisayote National Reserve and the Pacayita volcano on the other side. The mountainous topography creates micro-climates beneficial to different coffees, such as Parainema, Pacas, Lempira, Catuaí, Obatá, Colombia, and IHCAFE90.

Their members’ harvests are processed in their own centralized facility, which has a wet mill, drying patios, a dry mill, and a cupping lab.

The Parainema variety is a cultivar developed by the Honduran National Coffee Institute (IHCAFE) to mitigate natural risks that could undermine the efforts and worth of the national coffee industry and endanger the livelihoods of the workers across the coffee value chain who depend on it.

The Parainema’s hardiness is due to its deeper and sturdier root system compared to more traditional varieties like Typica and Bourbon. Because of its root system, it is able to thrive in spite of threats from nematodes while extracting as much nutrients as possible from the soil, allowing it to regularly bear healthy coffee cherries in viable volumes. It is also more adaptable to different types of soil and has resistance to coffee leaf rust.

Previously more recognized for its resilience and yield productivity than its cup quality potential, it currently enjoys recognition as a flavorsome variety when cultivated in the optimal terroir, selectively hand-harvested, and processed with intention. The turning point came in 2017when a Parainema variety emerged in 1st place at the Honduran Cup of Excellence.

For roasters, the appeal of the Parainema is not only its flavor potential but also the physicality of the beans, like its large size and tendency toward uniformity, which also makes it easier to get to the sweet spot and consequently easier for the barista or the home brewer to calibrate. This leads to more predictability in roasting and brewing more easily enjoyable specialty coffees.

Catuai is a cultivar with Brazilian origins, having been developed by the Instituto Agronomico (IAC) in Sao Paulo, by cross breeding the exceptionally productive Mundo Novo and the usefully compact Caturra. The relevance at the farm-level is that more Catuai trees can be grown in a given area because of their small stature, allowing the plants to be placed nearer to each other, for example compared to Typica and Bourbon.

Their shape and height also make it physically easier to apply necessary treatments to the plants in the off-season, and at harvest season, to hand-select the properly ripe cherries, contributing to less tedious and more efficient work for the pickers.

Composing Finca Cascaritas Lot 19, Parainema and Catuai natural-processed in harmony express richly sweet and nutty notes complemented by mellow acidity with crisp highlights.