Flavour Profile: Kiwi Fruit + Toffee Apples

 

Farm: Finca Membreño

Producer: Nelis Xiomara Martinez

Location: Santa Barbara, Honduras

Farm Elevation: 1500masl

Farm Size: 2.1 hectares total / 2.1 hectare in coffee

Varieties: Bourbon, Pacas, IHCAFE 90

Process: Fully Washed

Sourcing: Caravela

 

When Nelis arrived home from school at the age of 11, her father would ask her to help him with the post-harvest processes of his coffee. She remembers helping her father depulping, washing, and moving the coffee while it was drying. When she was on vacations, she helped him by harvesting the coffee. She remembers that when the farm was owned by her father there were so many large trees that the coffee trees didn’t receive any sunlight. As Nelis grew older, she decided she wanted to follow in her father’s footprints, to become a coffee producer. To do so, she involved herself more in her father’s farm until she inherited and managed it all by herself.

 

At first, it wasn’t easy for Nelis. Things weren’t quite as straightforward as she had expected and the incomes she received weren’t enough for her to sustain her family. The farm was in a fairly bad condition and in contrast she saw that her neighbour was doing really well. They had the same soil conditions and same altitude, so Nelis eventually she asked him what he was doing differently. Her neighbour told her about ‘specialty coffee’ and introduced her to Beneficio San Vicente, where they guided her and gave her technical assistance to improve the practices on her farm.

 

That same year, in 2016, she sold her very first microlot which allowed her to receive economic benefit for doing what she truly loves. According to Nelis, the most challenging thing about being a coffee grower is the lack of time that she has as she also takes care of the house, her family and her workers.