MEET THE PRODUCERS | It is always an honor to feature a lot from Honduras's own coffee power couple, Marysabel Caballero and Moisés Herrera, on our menu. As far as coffee stories go, theirs is somewhat of a fairytale. For her part, Marysabel Caballero is a fourth generation coffee producer whose family ties to the industry date all the way back to 1907. Moisés Herrara is a newbie by contrast - he got his start in coffee while working for a Guatemalan coffee exporter in the early 1990's. In 1992, a work trip - or was it fate? - brought Moisés to the very same region where Marysabel and her family had been growing high-quality coffee for nearly a hundred years. The two were married in 1996, and they immediately began planting and cultivating their first farm together, La Maltide. What began as two lovebirds and one farm in the municipality of Marcala has since grown to an empire of thirty-five distinct coffee farms, each bearing the couple's names - including Finca Los Lirios, the farm which yielded this lovely Catuai lot.
TRUST THE PROCESS | Coffee cherries are hand-picked and hand-sorted at peak ripeness before being de-pulped and going for a ride in the mechanical mucilage remover. The parchment coffee (with some mucilage still remaining) is then allowed to ferment overnight and finally washed in a washing channel, which helps with a second round of quality sorting - this time, for floaters and underdeveloped beans. Finally, the coffee goes for a spin in a centrifuge to remove excess water before being spread out on raised beds to dry in the sun.
TAKE A SIP | Moisés and Marysabel have long been producing the best coffees we've ever tasted from La Paz, and this washed Catuai lot is no different. It's the perfect addition to our green label line-up: approachable and easy-going, but with enough complexity to keep industry folk interested. It has a bright, vibrant acidity and nice stone fruit character, like apricots. It has a complex, nutty sweetness that reminds us of praline pecans, and it drinks oh-so-smoothly, like milk chocolate.
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Origin | Marcala, La Paz, Honduras
Producers | Marysabel Caballero & Moisés Herrera
Farm | Finca Los Lirios
Process | Washed
Variety | Catuai