Honduras
Copan
Benítez Family
Finca El Tigre
Catuai
Washed
January-April
Smooth, Cranberry, Stonefruit
1850 meters
N/A
69 kg GrainPro
SOLD OUT
Don Donaldo Benitez planted his first nursery and farm in the village of Agua Fria in El Remolino with seeds he brought from Corquin in the Copan department in 1988. With his wife Doña Bernadina and their 8 children Donaldo has grown the production to include three farms of 7 hectares each, El Tire, El Izote, and Los Laureles. Across the three properties the Benitez family grows Bourbon, Catuai, and Pacas.
The coffee is planted under the shade of Inga, pine, oak, banana, citrus, peach, and avocado trees. Coffee is hand picked and transferred the same day to the depluping station, where it is washed and fermented for 12-16 hours. The coffee is washed with clean water to remove any mucilage and dried on patios and African beds for an average of 8 days.
It was through the Bon Café, SA specialty coffee program that the Benitez’ first learned their coffee was of unique and noteworthy quality. The remote Lempira department is characterized by a drier, Pacific-influenced climate and was named for the famous Lempira warrior who rebelled against the colonizing Spaniards.
Copán is one of the six major coffee growing regions in Honduras. In the northwest mountains of the country, along Honduras’ border with Guatemala, coffee in Copán is grown on farms with elevation ranges from 1000-1500 meters above sea level. The annual precipitation in Copán is 1300-2300mm per year and the temperature is between 11.5 and 22.3 degrees Celsius.
Farms in Copán are shaded by the nitrogen-fixing Inga tree and various species of fruit and hardwood forest trees. The region has many national parks in its mountains and coffee producers in Copán maintain harmony between the coffee plots and the natural environment. The Copan coffee region includes farms in both the Copán and Lempira Departments.
