Ubaldo Gonzáles and his family work a 7.5-hectare plot of land in southern Honduras called Finca La Joya, which has been in his family for more than a century. Partnering with the local Fair Trade Coop, Cooperativa Regional de Agricultores Orgánicos de la Sierra (RAOS), Ubaldo’s honey process coffee was selected for us by their QC team and approved by ours in May of this year. It’s timely export and arrival are cause for celebration, as is its lovely flavor profile.
Copious sweetness in the form of watermelon candy, butterscotch, and clover honey greet the cupper on first sip. Plum, and soft citrus like an orange marmalade, dried date, and a hint of rose accompany a balanced body and acidity, with a long chocolaty aftertaste.
“The quality of our coffee is the direct result of the combination of geographic diversity and the meticulous work of our family throughout the production chain, from farm production, processing, drying in the sun and delivery for export,” Ubaldo Gonzáles told RAOS. “In this way, Finca la Joya is for years the family heritage, a profitable and sustainable family inheritance of agriculture, generating productive knowledge in a diversified way with quality and ecological balance.”
“Finca La Joya is located at 1,500 meters above sea level in the mountainous area of the municipality of San José, 20 km from Marcala, in the Montecillo mountain range, one of the privileged special coffees in Central America, producing areas with a very distinguished Designation of Origin.”
Per Mayra Orellana-Powell, RAOS was “Funded in 1997… [and] was the first cooperative of small and medium organic coffee producers in Honduras. RAOS has 270 members, many of them pioneers in the organic movement with decades of experience cultivating coffee. Others are from a new generation of producers who grew up on their parents’ organic farms.”
