Fuerza La Labor is a community driven coffee, the coffees are chosen from the better cupping coffees from families within the La Labor town in Ocotepeque, Honduras. Originally part of Copan until it was split in 1906, Ocotopeque lies in the western part of Honduras, bordering with El Salvador and Guatemala.
La Labor is part of the Mancomunidad Guisayote, a joint venture between five local municipalites to help alleviate the regional poverty via a focus on infrastructure, the pride and passion they display within the community is exhibited by the investment of their premium earned from producing quality coffee in to a museum at the COCAFELOL cooperative highlighting the history and culture of La Labor town. The coffee itself is named after a play on words, as La Labor translates to Labour, with Fuerza la Labor loosely translating to ‘power to the people’, reflecting nicely on the community-based approach to improving quality and prices.
Around 80% of cherries delivered for this coffee are picked and delivered to the cooperative as cherry, for controlled processing, grading and tasting. The remaining 20% is wet processed on the farm level before being delivered as parchment to be tasted, graded, and selected before being added to the rest.
Lempira, the varietal that shares a name with the department and is significant in Honduras, was until recently rust resistant, so having a mix of varieties on the farms as a way of increasing genetic diversity and therefore crop security is important. Ihcafe 90 is a Catura/Timor Hybrid cross with high yield potential, selected by Instituto Hondureño del Café.
