Honduras Selección Colinas Smallholder Washed – Green Coffee Beans
Origin: Honduras
Region: Santa Bárbara
Community: San José de Colinas
Producers: 20 Smallholder Farmers
Average Farm Size: Approx. 2.5 hectares
Crop: 2025/26
Species: Arabica
Varieties: IHCAFE 90, Lempira & Parainema
Altitude: 1,200–1,500 MASL
Process: Fully Washed
Fermentation: 16–18 Hours, Dry Fermentation
Drying: Patios & Raised Beds
Drying Time: Approx. 8–15 Days
Grade: SHG – Strictly High Grown
Screen: 15+
Tasting Notes: Raisin, Toffee, Lemon & Macadamia
Bag: 69kg GrainPro / Ecotact
Lot: P8003217-2
Processing: Yellow Honey Processed & Sun dried on raised beds
Cupping Notes: Milk Chocolate, Nuts & Tropical Fruit
This coffee comes from San José de Colinas in the Santa Bárbara department of Honduras, where a carefully selected group of just 20 smallholder farmers contribute to this lot.
Their farms average around 2.5 hectares and sit at elevations of approximately 1,200–1,500 metres above sea level, where cooler mountain temperatures help slow cherry development and encourage greater sweetness, acidity and structure in the cup.
Coffee from Santa Bárbara
Santa Bárbara is one of Honduras’s most important coffee-growing regions and has built a strong reputation for producing high-quality Arabica.
The landscape is mountainous, with coffee grown across steep slopes and a variety of local microclimates. These changing elevations and growing conditions can produce coffees with very different profiles, but San José de Colinas is particularly known for balanced washed coffees with good sweetness and clarity.
20 Smallholder Farmers
Selección Colinas is not a single-estate coffee.
Instead, this lot represents the work of 20 smallholder farming families from the San José de Colinas community.
With average farm sizes of around 2.5 hectares, these producers work on a relatively small scale, managing their own coffee plots and carefully harvesting cherries as they ripen.
That gives this coffee a strong community identity while still maintaining a relatively focused level of traceability.
IHCAFE 90, Lempira & Parainema
This lot combines three Arabica varieties with strong links to Honduran coffee production:
IHCAFE 90, Lempira and Parainema.
IHCAFE 90 was developed through the Honduran coffee research system and is known for its productivity and adaptability.
Lempira has also been widely planted in Honduras and was selected for its resilience and good cup potential.
Parainema is a Sarchimor-derived variety known for its larger beans, good agronomic performance and ability to produce high-quality coffee when carefully grown and processed.
Together, these varieties give the lot a modern Honduran identity, balancing sweetness, body and acidity.
High-Altitude Growing
The coffee is grown at approximately 1,200–1,500 MASL.
At these elevations, lower average temperatures slow the ripening of the coffee cherries. This extended maturation period allows sugars and acids more time to develop before harvest.
The result is denser green coffee with good structure and a balanced flavour profile.
Fully Washed Processing
The coffee is processed using the fully washed method.
Ripe cherries are selectively hand-picked before being placed in water, where they can be sorted by density. Lower-quality floating cherries are removed before the better fruit moves into processing.
The cherries are then depulped, removing the outer skin and most of the fruit.
The parchment coffee undergoes approximately 16–18 hours of dry fermentation, helping break down the remaining mucilage around the seed.
Once fermentation is complete, the coffee is thoroughly washed until clean.
This process helps create a cleaner cup profile, allowing the character of the varieties and growing conditions to remain clearly expressed.
Slow Drying on Patios & Raised Beds
After washing, the parchment coffee is dried using a combination of specialised patios and raised drying beds.
Drying typically takes around 8–15 days, depending on weather conditions.
The coffee is turned regularly to encourage even moisture loss and reduce the risk of defects.
Raised beds help improve airflow around the parchment, while patio drying allows producers to carefully control the pace of moisture reduction.
SHG – Strictly High Grown
This lot is classified as SHG – Strictly High Grown.
The designation reflects its high-altitude production and is commonly used for Honduran coffees grown at elevations associated with slower maturation and denser beans.
The coffee is also prepared to screen 15+, helping provide greater consistency in bean size and roast behaviour.
In the Cup
Expect notes of:
Raisin • Toffee • Lemon • Macadamia
The raisin brings dried-fruit sweetness and depth, while toffee adds a rich caramelised character.
A bright lemon note lifts the cup and keeps it lively, while macadamia adds a smooth, creamy nut quality.
The overall profile is sweet, rounded and balanced, with enough acidity to remain fresh without becoming overly sharp.
For Roasters
This coffee is particularly versatile.
A light-to-medium roast will emphasise more of the lemon and dried-fruit character.
A medium roast will bring out greater toffee sweetness and macadamia-like body while retaining enough brightness to keep the cup balanced.
It should work very well as both a single-origin espresso and filter coffee, and it can also make a strong component in blends where a roaster wants sweetness, structure and a clean Central American character.
A Strong Community Coffee
Honduras Selección Colinas brings together several qualities that make it a compelling green coffee:
20 smallholder farmers, high-altitude production, modern Honduran Arabica varieties, careful washed processing and slow drying on patios and raised beds.
Rather than relying on experimental processing, this coffee is all about balance, sweetness and careful preparation.
For customers looking for an approachable but characterful Honduran coffee, it offers a particularly strong combination of traceability, quality and value.
No one knows for sure exactly when coffee first reached Honduras, but it is believed that seeds arrived from Costa Rica between 1799 and 1804, amongst the goods brought by travelling merchants. Today, Honduras is the largest coffee producer in Central America, and the industry plays an important role within the national economy.
Despite the huge scale of its annual coffee production and great potential for both growth and quality development, in the Central American coffee hall of fame, Honduras is rarely found at centre stage – a mantle more likely coveted by its neighbours, Guatemala, Costa Rica and El Salvador. And yet on paper the reputation of Honduras should be up there with those countries, since it has the same conditions to produce very good coffees: high altitude, volcanic and fertile soils, an ideal climate and plenty of expertise. Unfortunately, a lack of investment and inadequate infrastructure means that we must work extra hard to find the best coffees that Honduras offers. Much of the country’s output feeds the commodity coffee market, despite the steps taken to improve quality by the country’s national coffee institute: Instituto Hondureno del Café (IHCAFE). The high average annual rainfall, which reaches 240cm in the North of the country, can also complicate the process of drying coffee once it has been harvested, prior to export.
Honduran specialty coffees are classified using a system categorized by the height at which the coffee was grown. Strictly High Grown (SHG), applies to coffees grown above 1200 masl, and High Grown (HG) above 1000 masl. Alike other Central American nations, Honduran coffee is shipped in 69 kilo bags.
