January 2023’s Coffee Origin
Honduras - Nancy Hernandez - Finca El Jasmin - Micro Lot
Natural & Sun Dried
New Year, New Coffees!
We have an exciting year of coffees planned for 2023. While 2022 seemed to have blown by, we are aiming to savour 2023 as if it were a ...I don't know, maybe a complete year!
This month we are cupping an origin that found its way into our shop almost by accident. We needed to fill a gap in our Honduras offerings and while we were waiting for something great to Cup, this coffee became available. We hope you'll agree, this was exactly what we were looking for.
This Month's Coffee Selection
You could say that coffee runs in the Hernandez family's blood. Nancy showed interest and began helping with her family's coffee business when she was 8 years old. Yup, you read that right, 8 years old! When I was 8, I was lost in Hyrule trying to save Princess Zelda from Ganon, but life is not always a competition.
Over the past decade, Nancy has aimed to improve her coffee crops as well as the lives of her employees year after year. To the benefit of the coffee drinking community, Nancy's interests have expanded to coffee cupping, preparation, roasting and of course a four acre farm, Finca El Jasmin, where this beautiful Micro Lot was grown. As a rule of thumb, if you are going to put your name on something, it had better be great and this offering is no exception. Through my internet snooping, it appears that Nancy's daughter has joined the family business, perhaps if we're lucky we'll soon see another Hernandez's name on an amazing crop of coffee!
As always though, the story of where the coffee came from takes a back seat to ...How Does It Taste?
HONDURAS - NANCY HERNANDEZ - FINCA EL JASMIN - MICRO LOT
Region: Marcala, La Paz
Varietals: Bourbon, Catuai & Pacas
Growing Elevation: 4900+ feet
Harvest: December through March
Process: Natural and Sun Dried
Flavour Profile and Notes: GO CUP YOURSELF and find out!
Roaster’s Notes:
Similar to last month's origin, you may notice that the beans are visually smaller than many of the origins we've cupped. While the Yemeni bean were physically smaller beans, the Honduras Finca El Jasmin green beans appear similar in size to the average beans we roast. Yet across multiple roast times, drop temperatures and roast levels, the beans simply expanded less than many of our offerings. This could be due to moisture, varietals, processing or any combination of reasons that may be fun to look into another time.
On the roasting side, these beans are obviously Naturally Processed. They are consistent in size and have a beautifully tinted coating/skin.
They smell fruit filled and sweet like a sugary candy. You can visually observe that time and care was taken when sorting this harvest. The beans roast at a consistent/predictable pace, although they seem to prefer a relatively low charge and flame (similar to many Naturals). They are quiet in first crack, which leads me to believe the size aspect may involve moisture or density, but again, I'm no scientist.
As the light to medium roasted beans appeared small, we assumed we had under roasted them at first, so we tried again...and again...and again. For comparison, even as a dark roast, the beans were smaller than our dark roasted blends. So, we did the thing we do when we're not sure...WE CUPPED and CUPPED and CUPPED SOME MORE! It turned out that every roast level we tried was amazing!
Cupping-wise, look for Milk Chocolate, Plum and …wait a minute, if you want cupping notes Go Cup Yourself!
Once you have finished Cupping, click on the “EXPERT TASTED” tab for our tasting notes. Can’t wait to compare notes.
As always, we'd love to hear from you. Better yet, tell the world what you think. If you've been enjoying the Go Cup Yourself experience, please take a moment to review us on Facebook, Google, Yelp, Reddit, a bathroom stall door or anywhere you get your reviews.
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