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Beans: Finca Los Laureles, Lempira, Natural, Santa Barbara, Honduras.
Shop: Cafecito Central, Webshop, Den Bosch, The Netherlands.
Cafecito Central – Lempira: Background information.
The Cafecito Central Lempira is a coffee from Finca Los Laureles in Honduras. The finca is owned by Ruth and Ramon Enamorado and is located in the department of Santa Barbara, Honduras. This department is surrounded by high mountains which provide a beautiful climate with temperatures between 27 and 15 degrees Celsius and plenty of rain. The finca is 300 km away from the capital Tegucigalpa and is located at proximately 1550 meters above sea level.
The history of coffee farming started in 1940 when don Virgilio Enamorado got their first 8 hectares of land for coffee production. Today his son Ramón keeps the family tradition alive and runs successful coffee farm. When you walk on the farm you will notice the diversity of the trees shading the coffee plants. There is also a wide variety of animals on the farm that in turn take care of the coffee plants by eating harmful insects for example. Finca Los Laureles produces washed, honey washed and natural coffees and beside the Lempira, Icatu, Parainema and Ihcafe-90 varieties, they are also growing Pacamara and Geisha varietals in the near future.
Cafecito Central – Lempira: Opening the package.
The package of Cafecito Central is beige and comes with a Bordeaux red logo with a some really nice artwork. The logo has some old houses depicted on it that represent the actual city of Den Bosch. One of the little turrets on one of the houses seem to have a lever coming to give the impression that its a grinder. Very nice! On the label it tells you what kind of beans are in the package, the roasting date and information on the farm. Of course the package has a degassing valve and ziplock.
When I open the package I get a soft scent of caramel en a sweetness that I cannot determine right away. The beans are roasted nicely and are all of the same size. The bean is quite hard and has a note of fruit and grain in it together with a hint of salt. I’m curious as to what this coffee will taste like when I start grinding and brewing. I decide to brew this coffee on the Hario V60, Aeropress and Siphon. When I grind the beans the scent reminds me once again of grain but there is a hint of red fruit in there as well.
Cafecito Central – Lempira: The tasting.
When brewing this coffee on the Siphon I noticed that the coffee had more fruity flavours than for example the Aeropress and Hario V60. The Hario V60, however, gave off a more complete picture while the Aeropress made the Lempira more juicy and less acidic. The following are my findings on all three brewers.
As I brewed the coffee the aroma that caught my nose was a faint red fruit that tried to push a more savoury aroma to the side. After brewing the savoury aspect was totally gone and a soft sweet red fruity aroma took over. It reminded me of red fruit and cherry that mingled with sugared tea.
I took a sip of the coffee and the fruitiness was there as well. It hinted at vanilla, honey, caramel and once more the red fruit. This all changed when I started to swirl the coffee in my mouth. The coffee stimulated the lower side of my mouth and gave off a winey mouthfeel. This stopped abruptly when I swallowed the coffee and changed into the sugared caramel fruity flavours again. Yet again the flavour changed abruptly when I breathed back through my nose with a closed mouth and this time a hint of chocolate came forth. When the coffee cooled off, the winey aspect became more apparent and I noticed a soft grapefruit mouthfeel in the back of my mouth. Once more a hint of milk chocolate could be noticed in the aftertaste. The nice part of this coffee was that I could keep reviewing over and over. The winey and citric acidity was not that high and complemented the satin mouthfeel that the coffee gave off.
Cafecito Central – Lempira: The verdict.
This Cafecito Central Lempira was roasted in a delicate way. The coffee has a surprisingly balanced and delicate mix of fruits, caramel, vanilla and sugared tea. The winey aspect that this coffee brings to your cup is nice and mixes well with the cherry and red fruit notes although these flavours are never overly apparent. I would like to point out the abrupt change of flavours and mouthfeel that this coffee brings to the table. It jumps from fruity to winey, to sugared tea and finally to a hint of milk chocolate at the end. I liked this change of sensations a lot, and tried to conjure it each time I took a sip. Thanks Cafecito Central, it was a pleasure reviewing this coffee!