Honduras | Celia Portillo

Celia Portillo’s farm, La Pacaya, is located at 1,750 MASL along the Comayagua Mountain Range. Together with her husband Clementino they manage 4 hectares of land. This particular lot is a separation of Bourbon, harvested in April 2024. This is our second year working with Celia's coffee, and we’re thrilled to have it back on the menu. This harvest is tasting wonderfully sweet and rich, with vibrant notes of grape, plum, and rhubarb. We find a jammy sweetness and a creamy texture of nougat.

Celia has been connected to coffee production her entire life. Her husband, Clementino, is the brother of Antonio Ramírez, widely known as the first to cultivate coffee for commercial sale in the region after discovering Typica and Bourbon on his farm in the 1980s. For many years, Celia and Clementino sold their coffee, either in cherry or depulped, at whatever price they could get locally. A few years ago, Celia learned she could process her coffee as specialty coffee to receive a higher price and the results have been incredible.

Cherries are picked at peak ripeness and fermented in shade for 36 hours in sealed bags before they are pulped. The seeds then are fermented in sealed bags for an additional 35 hours. Once this fermentation is complete, the seeds are rinsed of any mucilage and dried on raised beds for 22 to 25 days until the moisture content reaches 10.5%.