Benito Sanchez

Impressions: blood orange, peach, caramel, pecan
Roast degree: light (2/5)

Country: Honduras
Location: Las Delicias, El paraiso
Variety: Parainema
Process: Washed
Farmer: Benito Sanchez
Farm: El Higo
Import partner: Semilla

Honduras often flies under the radar as a central American origin. It doesn't offer big volume lots like Mexico or Guatemala, and it is not viewed as quality focused like Panama and Costa Rica.
But make no mistakes: the coffee coming out of the country are absolutely phenomenal!

Benito knows a thing or two about coffee farming: he has been working his farm for the past 44 years.
Even though rising cost of production and uncertainties of the global coffee sector make being a coffee farmer challenging, Benito remains steadfast: his aspirations remain steadfast: he will continue managing his land efficiently and securing his well-being, especially now that his eight children are independent.
''"Thank you for supporting my coffee. After so many years of cultivation, it is heartening to know that it reaches your tables. I hope one day you can visit my farm and see where it all begins."- Benito Sanchez

Cherries for this lot were harvested at their peak ripeness and de-pulped the same day. Following this, the coffee underwent a 50 hours of dry fermentation in tanks. They were then dried in a solar dryer covered with transparent plastic for 25 to 30 days.

Semilla's work in Honduras is almost inclusively in a series of hamlets stretched along the peaks of the Montecillos mountain range that crosses La Paz and Comayagua departments, and in these areas, the smallholder growers they buy from have been involved in coffee growing as a principal income source for years if not generations.
Many growers have explained to them that the prices they've receive in the
conventional model are simply not high enough to generate profits. This is a common refrain heard in Honduras these days, that coffee farming at best can generate enough money to pay the pickers and the input costs but often fails to do even that.
That is why we are happy to work with Semilla: they pay more than double what the ''market'' would have paid those farmers. (see our transparency report for more)

Over the last 15 years, the Canadian government has impacted the trajectory of Honduran democracy to create favourable conditions for Canadian corporations within the country, often to the detriment of the Honduran people. Buying coffee consciously is a small but powerful way to try to undo those imperialist efforts.