To the west of Honduras lies the department of Santa Barbara, one of nine that COAGRISCAL work in, but the one that all our coffee is sourced from. This is mainly grown in the Trinidad and Santa Barbara municipalites in the villages of El Corazol, Monte Cristo and El Palca.
The cooperative was formed in 1995 with 32 members and became a legal entity in 1998. Jose Oscar Serrano was one of the original founding members and is now the cooperative president, overseeing diversifi cation into cocoa and cayenne pepper as well. Receiving the bulk of the crop in cherry form, they have seven collection centres in central locations to ensure it will reach the beneficio in time for processing. This produces a large amount of parchment, which is used to generate power that runs the entire site.
Coffee cherries are not fermented at all here, except for a very small proportion that is depulped on a farm level, this leads to a much greater consistency and simpler but no less delicious presentation of flavour.
