Honduras Organic La Esmeralda, Marcala
Organic La Esmeralda has a light tea-like body with intense aromas of sweet fruit akin to red plum and mango, however, the cup flavor is less complex with subdued mixed fruit flavors of perhaps peach and pineapple, derivatives of the intense mango aroma, finishing with a faint honeysuckle sweetness. This is a good coffee… be prepared to allow your sense of smell to carry the day with the resulting flavor a spirit-like phantom of the muscular aroma.
Process: Anaerobic Red Honey… depulped allowing mucilage to remain, 72-hour fermentation in airtight tanks, dried, mucilage removed
Elevation: 5741 feet
Aroma: Intense sweet fruit like red plum and mango
Flavor: Subdued peach and pineapple, derivatives of the intense mango aroma, with a faint honeysuckle finish… medium acidity
Roast: Medium… tea-like light body
Organic La Esmeralda has a light tea-like body with intense aromas of sweet fruit akin to red plum and mango, however, the cup flavor is less complex with subdued mixed fruit flavors of perhaps peach and pineapple, derivatives of the intense mango aroma, finishing with a faint honeysuckle sweetness. This is a good coffee… be prepared to allow your sense of smell to carry the day with the resulting flavor a spirit-like phantom of the muscular aroma.
Process: Anaerobic Red Honey… depulped allowing mucilage to remain, 72-hour fermentation in airtight tanks, dried, mucilage removed
Elevation: 5741 feet
Aroma: Intense sweet fruit like red plum and mango
Flavor: Subdued peach and pineapple, derivatives of the intense mango aroma, with a faint honeysuckle finish… medium acidity
Roast: Medium… tea-like light body
Organic La Esmeralda has a light tea-like body with intense aromas of sweet fruit akin to red plum and mango, however, the cup flavor is less complex with subdued mixed fruit flavors of perhaps peach and pineapple, derivatives of the intense mango aroma, finishing with a faint honeysuckle sweetness. This is a good coffee… be prepared to allow your sense of smell to carry the day with the resulting flavor a spirit-like phantom of the muscular aroma.
Process: Anaerobic Red Honey… depulped allowing mucilage to remain, 72-hour fermentation in airtight tanks, dried, mucilage removed
Elevation: 5741 feet
Aroma: Intense sweet fruit like red plum and mango
Flavor: Subdued peach and pineapple, derivatives of the intense mango aroma, with a faint honeysuckle finish… medium acidity
Roast: Medium… tea-like light body
The size of Louisiana with twice the population and one third the GDP, Honduras is bordered north/northeast by the Caribbean Sea, south/southeast by Nicaragua, south/southwest by El Salvador accompanied by a 115-mile coastline on the Gulf of Fonseca which spills into the Pacific Ocean and northwest by Guatemala. Organic La Esmeralda is cultivated by De La Finca, meaning “From the Farm”, Coffee Importers at their farm La Esmeralda, “The Emerald”, a small gem located near the village of La Sampedrana in the Comayagua coffee region roughly 66 miles northwest of the capital Tegucigalpa. The farm was purchased to expand De La Finca’s specialty micro-lot experimentation with processes and varietals.
Our coffee’s anaerobic, literally meaning “without air”, red honey process is one of their endeavors. This starts with a honey process which involves not completely depulping the coffee cherry, allowing a small amount of the mucilage to remain on the bean, but instead of immediately drying like a traditional honey process, the beans are placed to ferment in airtight plastic barrels where the yeast and bacteria break down the sugars, resulting in organic compounds that affect flavor and aroma. It is believed these organic compounds are compressed into the bean as the result of ambient pressure created in the barrels. The resulting flavors are deliciously unpredictable and surprisingly wild. La Esmeralda has been fermented for 72 hours allowing sweet ripe fruit characteristics without the ascetics that sometimes result from long fermentation. The brew has a light tea-like body with intense aromas of sweet fruit akin to red plum and mango, however, the cup flavor is less complex with subdued mixed fruit flavors of perhaps peach and pineapple, derivatives of the intense mango aroma, finishing with a faint honeysuckle sweetness. This is a good coffee… be prepared to allow your sense of smell to carry the day with the resulting flavor a spirit-like phantom of the muscular aroma.
Process: Anaerobic Red Honey… depulped allowing mucilage to remain, 72-hour fermentation in airtight tanks, dried, mucilage removed
Elevation: 5741 feet
