Honduras’ Santa Barbara region holds a special place in our hearts. It provides fertile terrior to some of our closest international relationships* and their cafetales (coffee farms). At 1500masl, Cecilio Aguilar’s Finca La Cruces is another perfect example of a family-owned production that offers a little piece of their home to ours. Like a lot of producers, Cecilio and his family began by farming vegetables. In 1971 a friend offered to finance Cecilio's land, and this allowed the Aguilars to kickstart their coffee career. Learning by doing and developing an intricate family method producing specialty coffee exclusively, the Aguilars found a means to consistently clean and sweet coffees.
In our second year working with them, we can attest to the consistency of Finca La Cruces' four hectares (approx. ten acres). Here, the family tends to a crop of forty-five percent bourbon, forty-five percent pacas, and ten percent IHCAFE90 varietals. Cecilio and his sons handpick the cherries upon ripening for depulping and dry fermentation (for up to the fourteen hours). They continue their process with a thorough four washes (each wash with fresh water). The family recipe concludes with drying on raised African-style beds for 5 hours and then nine days in solar dryers with hand-raking in thirty-minute intervals for quality assurance.
This most recent Aguilar keepsake is a hundred percent pacas, and their family’s thorough process comes across in its profile. The cup leads with clean and sweet flavors of date and honeydew, balancing out with comfortable hazelnut pleasantry.
Try Cecilio's coffee, here.
*Such as Alma Pineda, Benjamin Paz, and Denis Enarmorado