MARIA FERNANDEZ

RAW HONEY, LEMON CURD, GRAHAM CRACKER

This offering comes from Maria Fernandez and her family in the Las Flores, Santa Barbara. This coffee is a great example of the potential of the Parainema cultivar: a sweet and tangys note akin to lemon curt balanced with notes expressing molasses cookies or graham cracker. 

PRODUCER
Maria Fernandez grew up working the fields with her father on their family's coffee farm. In 2013 Maria was able to buy a portion of her family farm. Upon purchasing the 2 hectare (about 5 acres) parcel, she renovated the land with a relatively new variety at the time: Parainema. Like many in the Santa Barbara region, Maria and her family have been working with Beneficio San Vicente to improve their harvest and post-harvest practices, and to introduce them to the Specialty Coffee market.

VARIETY/CULTIVAR
This lot is composed entirely of the Parainema Cultivar. Parainema is a hybrid developed by the IHCAFE (Instituto Hondureño del Café) in Honduras. It has grown in popularity in Honduras for a number of reasons. Firstly, the plant possesses characteristic ideal for cultivation: it has a compact size (easier for harvesting), good yield potential (number of cherries per plant), disease resistant (especially coffee leaf rust), and grows well at lower elevations.

However, the main reason why Parainema has become popular is in 2015 Eulogio Martínez took first place in the Honduras Cup of Excellence competition with a lot comprised entirely of the Parainema variety. Coincidentally, Eulogio is Maria's farm neighbor!

PROCESSING PROTOCOL
Unfortunately I do not have a ton of information about their processing protocol. The coffee is mechanically depulped, washed and dried in parabolic driers.