Finca Gascon - Guatemala - Caturra - Red Honey - Espresso
An awesome 'Red Honey' Caturra from legendary producer Felipe Contreras at Finca Gascon. After a 48-hour oxidation phase, 50% of the mucilage is removed to be dried as a ‘red’ honey. Expect a sweet cup with notes of berries, currants, and dried fruits.
Felipe and Jordan at Finca Gascon are two of the most driven young producers we have been lucky enough to meet. The farm is completely organic with regenerative and permaculture principles and they tend to each plant according to the theory of molecular trofobiosis. They have built natural irrigation systems, produce their own organic compost, make their own natural ‘pesticide’ by fermenting plants, and are constantly innovating and experimenting with post-harvest processing.
Info
Producer
Sigfredo Corado is a retired Professor of Agronomy from the National School of Agriculture El Salvador.
Region
Los Angeles is located only a few minutes from the town of Apaneca, in the Ahuachapán mountain range in the west of El Salvador.
Sustainability
Finca Los Angeles has been completely chemical-free since Sigfredo took over managing it 10 years ago.
Elevation
Los Angeles is a small, 16 hectare farm that sits at 1400 masl. It has loamy soil and is planted with native shade trees designed in an agroforestry model.
Variety
Maragogipe is known for it's unusually large bean size and excellent cup quality.
Process
Fully-ripe cherries are floated, cleaned, and hand-sorted before being laid to dry on raised African beds.
Red Honey
“The honey process can be categorized by colour, which refers to the amount of mucillage left on the seed prior to drying.”
The modern day coffee pulper can be calibrated to remove specific amounts of mucilage when pulping. These different 'levels' are loosely graded by colour: namely white, yellow, orange, red and black. As the sugars in the mucillage caramelize, they darken in colour. The more mucilage that is left on, the longer the fermentation takes and the more the sugars caramelize or darken. Coffee with almost all the mucillage removed would be labeled as ‘white honey’, whilst a ‘black honey’ has almost all of the mucilage intact. This variation and control is what makes the honey process so interesting, as even small changes can create substantial differences in the final cup.
Renacer Program
“The Renacer Program is a technical coffee field school and educational program for producers in the area to learn about better farm management practices, which won 2023’s 'SCA Sustainability Award'.”
Sigfredo leads the school along with 6 field technicians to help small to medium producers improve farm practises, that are both restorative for the land and soil as well as beneficial for the yield and quality of the coffee. The field school is based at the sister farm, Finca Noruega, where there is a class held twice a month for the students. Throughout the year there are 3 modules and these look to focus on the 4 R's the program have developed for soil health. This year they have 60 students who work the test plots where they can implement the knowledge gained in class before applying it to their own farms.
Contact
