Honduras - La Balastrera Natural

Acidity: Mellow

Body: Round

Sweetness: Sugar cane

Aroma: Mangosteen, halva and panela

Andrea Campos Ortega is a 62-year-old producer of Lenca origin who after 4 years of participating in the specialty coffee process with Aruco company, has founded her farm - La Ballastrera. It is located in the community of Piedra Larga, Belen Ocotepeque at 1450 m.a.s.l. on the territory of Cacique Lempira, Senor de las Montanas Biosphere Reserve, known for its forests and rainy climate with temperatures ranging from 10 to 20 degrees Celsius. The farm has its own water supply from the Cornelio River, which also supplies water to neighboring farms.

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Each of the activities carried out on the farm, from pruning to harvesting, is supervised by Ms. Andrea. She does this with the help of her family and local staff. On the area of 0,28 ha she cultivates the IHCAFE 90 variety and Catimor. Except for coffee ornamental plants and fruit trees also grow there.

La Ballastrera is among more than 200 manufacturing partners of the Aruco cooperative, which was established in 2006 by 14 farmers from Corquin. In 2013, Aruco launched a micro-lot program aiming to produce high-scoring specialty coffees.

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Aruco provides its members with technical assistance, financing and international marketing of green beans. This approach ensures high productivity and environmental sustainability in production and promotes the comprehensive development of families in the region. Besides, the cooperative supports local educational, social and public health institutions. Caring about the quality education for his children, Donaldo founded the only bilingual school in Corquin.

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Aruco owns a coffee processing station equipped with modular sections for wet processing and drying. The wet mill uses environmentally friendly gear that minimizes water consumption. The drying equipment consists of 10 horizontal guards. Hot air for it is obtained by burning coffee husks in special ovens.

After harvesting, the berries are washed and cleaned of fluorides. The ripest and highest-quality
cherries are sent to the patio, where they are evenly laid out for drying, regularly mixed, and
calibrated. Special drying canopies are used for drying - the so-called "African beds".

Natural fermentation lasts about 3-4 weeks and is one of the longest methods. The coffee is
dried until the skin of the berries acquires a pronounced dark color, and the bean is completely
separated from the dried pulp, which can be heard by the characteristic tapping of the bean in
the middle of the dried shell. Drying lasts until the moisture content in the bean reaches 12%.

After drying, the berries are collected in bags so that the beans exchanges moisture.
In the last stage - the bean is sent to the huller to remove all the upper layers.
The finished product is packed in 69-kg jute bags with GrainPro protection and sent
for export.