VITRIOLIC HISS, Honduras

Tangerine, Toffee, Elderflower

Pedro Erazo farms in El Cedral, in the department of Santa Bárbara. He set out to grow vegetables, found the returns would not carry his family, and replanted the land with coffee while keeping the peach and avocado trees already standing. His first harvest sold on the high-grade market and cleared his debt. He named the farm El Milagrito, the little miracle. Three more farms have followed.

El Cedral holds a set of micro-climates formed by shifting altitude and the terrain running off the mountains. Cherry ripens slowly here, and harvest carries from January as late as June, well past the main Honduran season. Picking runs every 15 to 20 days and takes red cherry only.

At the wet mill the cherry is hand sorted, pulped the day it is picked, dry fermented in concrete pools for 15 hours, then washed three times.

Drying is slow and covered. The parchment goes onto raised African beds inside solar dryers for 12 to 15 days, turned every 30 minutes through daylight, and held to 10 - 12% moisture before resting in parchment until milling. Pacas at this altitude gives a defined, structured cup with weight through the middle and a clean, sweet finish.