Fiallos, Honduras

Honduras’ ascendency over the last year

In December 2017, a Honduran coffee broke auction records with a split lot from Finca El Laurel securing bids at $124.50 and $122.90 USD per pound.  This was a Cup of Excellence record and beat any other coffee ever auctioned from the competition.  In any country.

It’s all in the varietal – Parainema

The Parainema cultivar originates from Honduras and was lab produced in the 80s to be rust-resistant.  This means it is incredibly sustainable and reliable for high yield production on the farm.  With the Honduras winning lot from last year using exactly this varietal, it’s certainly no slouch in the taste department either.  However, last year’s winner used the washed process — as you might be contemplating now, we obviously considered the question ourselves: how good might the Parainema varietal be, when using the natural process?

Meet: Pedro Joel Fiallos

Pedro Joel Fiallos is the owner of Fiallos, the 28 hectare farm in the Las Pacayas area of Corquin, Copan. The farm sits at 1250 masl and is planted with a range of varieties including; Obata, Lempira, Catuai and of course, our Parainema.

Pedro started out working in coffee farms, picking and pruning, in order to save up enough money to buy land for himself. He eventually bought a half hectare plot and began growing coffee.  Little by little he has acquired more and more parcels of land and grown his total production to make a good living from coffee. Pedro was one of the founding members of Aruco and is still an important member, providing advice and assistance to other producers. This year Pedro has started producing naturals and working to improve the quality of his coffee.  We are pretty pleased with the results.

Can you taste it?

The natural process lends some of usual “funk” (an almost milky, creaminess), but it’s more subtle than with some other varietals.  Over the top of some of the more common central American flavours, you’ll find a decent blend of mild acidity here from the blueberry/papaya top notes.  This settles into the juiciness of the pineapple with a smooth finish.