Honduras Fiallos: Natural

Name: Fiallos
Producer: Pedro Joel Fiallos
Origin: Monte de La Virgen. Corquin, Copan
Varietal: Parainema 
Altitude: 1450 metres above sea level
Process: Natural
Flavours: Sweet juicy Orange and red currant jelly and peach ice tea
Harvest: Nov/Feb
Importer: Falcon Coffee
Cup Score: 87
FOB/Volume: £9.29 per Kg / 69 Kilos
RoastLight/Medium
BrewFilter & Espresso 

No one knows for sure exactly when coffee first reached Honduras, but it is believed that seeds arrived from Costa Rica between 1799 and 1804, amongst the goods brought by travelling merchants. Today, Honduras is the largest coffee producer in Central America, and the industry plays a vital role in the national economy. Pedro Joel Fiallos owns Fiallos, the 28-hectare farm in the Monte de la Virgen area of Corquin, Copan. The farm sits at 1450masl and is planted with a range of varieties including; Obata, Lempira, Catuai and 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 and little by little he acquired more and more parcels of land and grew 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.Pedro has consistently produced high-quality micro-lots since we started working with him three years ago. The producers will receive about 70% of the FOB price for their micro lots. This year the harvest for all producers was extremely difficult with increased rains during the harvest and a lack of pickers meaning a large amount of coffee was lost from either falling to the ground or swelling and splitting on the tree.All the processing for the ML’s takes place at the Aruco mill to centralise and have greater control over the process to create consistent procedures and also to reduce the risk on the producer. The mill is also at 800masl which gives a drier more stable climate to dry the coffee compared to up at the farms where the weather can be less predictable. The coffee will be delivered to the mill where they assess the cherry (take Brix) and decide on the process for the coffee depending on space and what the producer has done already. The cherry is cleaned and washed and then floated to remove any immatures. The coffee is then taken to the beds where it is dried for between 20 -30 days weather depending on where it is turned hourly.