The last one, we made it, we survived the highs of Costa Rica (two great coffees) the lows of Guatemala (missing out on a lot and refusing to accept second best). Today the last of the auction season with Honduras. Click here to see full results
Last year Honduras suffered with a bagging mistake that meant that the great coffee to come out of there was tainted with a jute bag taste. This was massively disappointing, as the coffee was great and potentially financially devastating for farmers and roasters alike. Due to the fantastic work of the specialty association of Honduras and the cup of excellence people it all got sorted out, every one got paid and no one lost out. A good news story.
So this year its been sorted, the lessons have been learnt (not just for Honduras this could have happened anywhere) and again the samples presented are some very fine coffee. I don’t stock an Honduras coffee and haven’t for many years. Why I hear you ask, well the samples that hit these shores are ok, they are alright quality, they tick all the boxes they need to, but they fail to excite like a good El Salvador or a wonderful Guatemala. As I have already said this year we decided not to take a Guatemalan because we have four wonderful examples of its coffee. But the reason for the cup of excellence is to find these great coffees from countries where you are unable to find them. To show the roaster that a country you didn’t think could produce fine coffee can way beyond the expectations you might have.
We Honduras have delivered. We cup half of the coffees offered that were in the lot sizes we were able to take and out of those coffees well over half wowed me. On a blind cupping table number one was very special. Solburg and Hansen have a wonderful coffee. On the table it was like drinking old style lemonade mixed with fizzy sherbet. Sounds strange tasted strange and was strange. But a character coffee. But number ones are hard to get with short pockets, one day, one day.
My second favourite was number 24 out of 24 in the auction. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, the positions mean nothing on a cupping table, you taste buds mean everything. A fine coffee that reminded me straight away of green apple, during the cupping I said “apple, apple, green apple” out loud. This is going to be a great brewed coffee, and a challenging but wonderful espresso. I see its real strength as a blend component and I can’t wait to get my hands on it.
Here in lies another problem this is the first ever lot we are going to have to ship ourselves, hard work you bet, a big pain in the backside for sure, worth it for sure.
