Honduras Caballero El Puente

Roaster’s Notes

Caffeine Culture lovers, those who regularly buy quality coffee from us and brew it, I think, know our friendship with the Caballero family. 😊 El Puente is the fifth lot and third harvest we bought as Caballero coffee. Since I have been competing with the Gesha production of El Puente farm for years, the story of Finca El Puente production is also important to me. Even though we know how much Caballeros’ natural coffees are loved in Turkey, their washed production has a special place in terms of taste! In terms of taste, Honduras Caballero El Puente is a price/performance coffee with a similar profile to its brother Caballero Amazonas from last year.

Marysabel and Moises are very sensitive to environmental sustainability in the production process. In their annual work, they devote a significant portion of their focus to improving the soil so that coffee trees can grow in good conditions. They have their own organic compost for this. If you would like to hear from the first person about their sensitivities during the production phase, you can access our interview with Marysabel Caballero from the link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NCzZ87jBCgc&t=807s

Among the Caballero farms, their farm with brand status is Finca El Puente. Whether it’s their Instagram name or the fact that their prominent coffees are predominantly from Finca El Puente, the practices that form the basis of this concept. When Moises and Marysabel visited us last year, they told us that, as Moises mentioned, they would now announce the common name of a significant portion of the farms as El Puente as a brand. They have not yet fully switched to this branding, but we are likely to see most of the important harvests under the El Puente name in the coming harvests.

Processing of Coffee:
Local pickers are hired and trained to select only the ripest cherries. During collection, all pickers are given 2 baskets. The harvest is divided into two groups: a basket for ripe cherries and another basket to hold over-ripe, damaged and unripe coffee cherries (for commercial use). After the coffees are collected and brought to the station, the pickers are paid per kilogram of cherries collected.

Process: Mucilage is separated to subject the bean to short fermentation. The coffee beans are then fermented with their parchment for 12 hours and then washed using African washing techniques. At this stage, while fermentation is completed in the pool, immature and defective beans continue to be sorted through water. After the first wash is completed, the beans are washed again in clean running water for approximately 12 hours. After the process is completed, the coffees are dried in raised beds covered with a canopy for 11 to 20 days, depending on the bean humidity and environmental conditions.