Gesha picked and processed by José Angel Lopez on his family farm, Los Nopales, in Santa Bárbara, Honduras. Los Nopales can't be accessed by truck due to the difficult terrain and clay soil, so it takes about an hour to get there on foot. Cherry is picked at this high altitude farm and brought down to his home by donkey to be processed. Cherry is carried down in sealed bags and left overnight before depulping by hand the following morning, Fermented in concrete tanks without water for 24 hrs. before being washed & dried on raised beds.
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Jose Angel Lopez is farming mainly Pacas (and a touch of Parainema & This Gesha) on a couple hectares in the Piedras Amarillas area of Santa Barbara. That signature Santa Barbara weather is like clockwork – cool mist enveloping the mountainsides of the national park reserve each afternoon. This micro climate is thanks to close proximity to Lake Yojoa, introducing this cooling effect that is an incredible asset to growing coffee plants slowly, allowing more time for nutrient uptake and slower maturation of the fruit.
Before working on his own farm, Jose was working as a picker with the notable Moreno family in Los Andes. José got his initial gesha seedstock from the Moreno family for this plot in Piedras. This is a gentle take on gesha, delicate and honey sweet.
José didn’t have any wet milling equipment or drying tables initially, so he borrowed from neighbours to get his coffee ready for delivery to the dry mill in the first couple years. That reliance on your community to get to the next step is critical, and something we can totally relate to. Once we received that first lot nearly five years ago, I reached out to Benjamin to see if I could buy a de-pulper for José as thanks for the lovely coffee but also thinking ahead to next year’s harvest. With one hurdle out of the way perhaps José could find a spot on his property to process his lots. Benjamin actually happened to have a de-pulper hanging around on his farm that he wasn’t using, so the next time José was at the dry mill, the de-pulper was handed over.
It's now been a couple harvest cycles & José’s systems have fully come together with the completion of a fermentation tank and a solar dryer. He still needs one more dryer to accommodate the full (growing) harvest but if this year’s coffee is any indication, he’s well on his way to an established farm producing exceptional coffees.
