Lots from the 2019 ‘Best of Honduras: Late Harvest’ auction are arriving to roasters and cafes around the world, after a successful program which saw a record number of entries. 

The auction program, which celebrated its fourth consecutive year in July of this year was held in partnership with the Honduran Institute of Coffee (IHCAFE) in the mountains of Santa Barbara. 

Producers are encouraged to enter their ‘late harvest’ coffees which are slow-ripening or mature later than usual due to climate. These coffees are then judged by a national panel within Honduras, before an international jury travels to Honduras to select the final coffees for auction.

This year, more than 20 visitors from around the world attended the auction as shadow and experienced judges. Project Origin green bean buyer, and one of the organisers of the auction event, Yanina Ferreyra says that each program is seeing more and more coffees from across Honduras. 

“This is definitely the most successful Late Harvest auction we have had in Honduras,” she said. 

“The coffees in the Best of Honduras auction came from farms all across Honduras, with both entries from producers we’ve seen in previous auctions, as well as new producers who have never entered a program like this.” 

In total the auction program earned these producers over $130,000 USD, with most of these coffees previously being sold as commodity coffees and earning basic market prices, or lower. This is because most green coffee buyers are looking to buy Honduran coffees between February and April, and not many are considering Honduran coffees in July. However, the quality of coffees at the ‘Best of Honduras: Late Harvest’ show what they’re potentially missing out on.

“As this is now the fourth year for auction, we are seeing some producers now specifically preparing coffees for the ‘Best of Honduras: Late Harvest’ program,” Ferreyra said.

“We had four coffees this year over 90 points. These are incredible results, considering that these coffees would have been sold on the local market otherwise.”

The five highest-scoring coffees of the auction were all different varieties: pacas, parainema,  bourbon, IH90 and catuai.

Ferreyra says that the range of coffees that are achieving high scores is encouraging to producers.

“The producers can see that any variety can make it to this top tier. Most of the varietals in the top 20 of the auction this year were resistant to leaf rust, which is also a great sign.” 

Throughout the trip to Honduras, the International panel of judges visited four different coffee farms, in order to understand more about processing, picking and the lifestyle of coffee producers. 

On the last day of the auction program, these judges were able to mingle with producers and cup together.

“This was a really important part of the event to us,” Ferreyra said.

“Collaborating like this helps producers to understand how the event takes place and also helps buyers to articulate their needs and desires in coffee.”

The judging panel also took part in a brewing session for the producers, with several attendees conducting Brewers Cup performances for these producers.

“Four different baristas brewed with four different coffee methods, explaining the variables and methods of brewing,” Ferreyra said.

“The producers were engaging with brewing styles and techniques, as well as asking about how their cup scores would translate into the cup. It was a really incredible experience and both those travelling to Honduras and the coffee producers took away a lot from that session.” 

Many of the coffees that were sold through the Best of Honduras program are now landing in countries across the world and will be enjoyed in the months to come. As for future plans, Ferreyra says that planning for the 2020 event is already under way. 

“We had a record number of coffees, attendees and buyers this year and we’re pushing even harder for the 2020 auction,” she said. 

“We’re going to try and engage even more producers from more regions of Honduras, so we can really share the diversity and high quality of coffee from this country.” 

The ‘Best of Honduras: Late Harvest’ event will return in July 2020 (TBA). 

The top three coffees from the ‘Best of Honduras: Late Harvest’ auction were:

1st place – Finca Arianita (washed bourbon)

The original owner of this farm, Elio sold it to his son in law Kelvin, who named it after his daughter. 2019 was the first year he had a commercially available harvest of coffee, with the yield from previous years being too low to sell on the market. When not on the farm, Kelvin is a driver that moves fruit and vegetables between cities. After placing in the top three, Kelvin and Elio were extremely humble, telling us “This is just the beginning, we need to keep working and improving.” 

Kevin plans to use his money to reinvest in the farm, but also promised to spend money on the namesake of the farm, his daughter Ariana.

Altitude: 1750masl
Department: Santa Barbara

2nd place – Finca Cheli (natural parainema)

Producer Nelson Ramirez first entered the Best of Honduras auction in 2016, finishing in fourth place. After this, he felt encouraged to put more energy into Finca Cheli. However, when in 2018 he didn’t manage to score anything above 85 points, he began investing more money and employing experimental processing methods with advice from Project Origin.

This year, he entered some of these experimental lots into the auction, including a technique of natural processing in cool temperatures. Nelson’s father, Andros also entered to auction, placing in the top 10. 

Altitude: 1600masl
Department: Santa Barbara

3rd place – El Recuerdo (washed pacas)

Elio Roberto Díaz Vallecillo entered the Best of Honduras program for the first time in 2019, winning an incredible $41.20/lb for his coffee. His mother was previously a part owner of the farm, but unfortunately passed away in 2017. Elio renamed the farm ‘El Recuerdo’, meaning memory or remembrance in her honour. He currently runs the farm in conjunction with his family, who also live on the property. He works with his wife, his daughter and his son in law to grow and produce Bourbon and Pacas varietals.

Altitude: 1600masl
Department: Santa Barbara

A special thanks to those who made the 2019 ‘Best of Honduras: Late Harvest’ auction possible: 

Sensible Coffee, Cafe Raga, IHCAFE, La Huerta, San Vincente