All of us from Cooperative Coffees in COMSA's screenprinting room: Cafe Campesinos, Sweetwater, Thread Coffee, Peace Coffee, Equator Coffee Roasters, Bean North, 44 North Coffee & Conscious Coffees
Our Honduran coffee beans have held a sweet spot in my heart since I started here at 44 North back in 2018. When I first started roasting coffee here at 44 North Coffee our COMSA Honduran beans were just blender beans. They were the smoky backup support in our beloved Royal Tar blend, and Megan and Melissa didn't love this coffee, so they didn't offer it as a single origin coffee. To which I asked why? They don't like dark roasts most days of the week, but I know there is a camp of folks who love a dark, sturdy cup (myself included on a cold winter day with lots of cream!). Always up for a challenge, I took it upon myself to make it a better single origin coffee, perhaps one even that Megan and Melissa could like. Although still not their favorite coffee, our single origin Honduran dark roast has cemented itself as a favorite among our dark roast lovers (are you one of them?); with its robust smokiness, notes of maple syrup, and burnt sugar, it really is that dark roast that stands up well to all the cream and sugar. It is also a really nuanced black cup of coffee, which sometimes is not the case with a darker roasted coffee, sometimes you just taste the roasting. Our Honduras beans have developed their own cult following here at 44. Our partners at Barn Door Baking in Damriscotta exclusively serves almost 100 pounds of this coffee alone each week! I'd say they like it! :)
Coffee cherry drying
Back in 2020, I attended a virtual Sourcing and Quality Committee meeting where I and several other Cooperative Coffee roasters were asked to submit our production roast Honduras. So I sent in our dark roasted Honduras beans to coffee professionals and farmers. For those who have never done an official coffee cupping, rarely is a dark roast on the table. Most judged coffees are on the lighter side of the roast spectrum, because ahem coffee professionals and also you can taste the nuance of the bean more in a light roast. Intimidating as it was, this is how we roast our Honduras coffee and that was the purpose, to get feedback on a coffee you are roasting and serving everyday. When we received the unmarked coffee samples in the mail, I knew instantly which one was mine, it was so dark and oily by comparison to all the others (granted the samples were over a month old). I prepared myself to receive some negative feedback as a new coffee roaster from the more experienced coffee professionals in the group. The farmers in the group said that the way I dark roast our Honduran coffee reminds them of how they roast and drink their coffee at home, they say, "dark roasted with lots of cream and sugar". Its full body creamy, chocolate notes, tapered acidity, balanced sweetness, and robust smokiness is just how they like it at origin! A more experienced roaster in the blind cupping said, “Anyone can under-roast, i.e. light roast, a coffee. It takes a well skilled and talented roaster to produce such a well balanced and stellar dark roast, such as this.” I was very proud and knew I had nailed this coffee! Since day one I have loved our COMSA Honduras coffee and now even more that I got to see where they come from.
Alix & Zoe, from Conscious Coffees, the 2 women roasters on the trip
So when Megan and Melissa offered for me to visit Honduras, to see my beloved beans growing and harvested, it felt like kismet that my first origin trip was going to be to the country where the coffee I took on to get right when I was a newbie coffee roaster! Being able to visit COMSA held an even deeper place in my heart, I also know that our green bean buying relationship with COMSA is one of the longest standing green bean relationships we have through Cooperative Coffees. Almost 25 years - virtually unheard of in the coffee world! So I was eager to get there. I have read many things about how holistically COMSA does everything they do, but it see it in person, and visually understand the magnitude of how much they have thought of Everything, and consider the many faucets that go into coffee farming is really awe-inspiring! They have thought of it all from soil to farmer to fruit to cup to compost to community to longevity to the world at large. All of it! Really a model to be admired and duplicated over and over!
Group photo: Coop Coffees, Cafe Campesinas, Sweetwater, Bean North, Conscious Coffees, Thread Coffee, Peace Coffee, Equator Coffee Roasters
COMSA, Café Orgánico Marcala S.A., was founded in 2001 with a vision of creating new and alternative development opportunities for small-scale coffee farmers in the region on contrast to the standard commercial commodity farming that was happening around the country. Since the beginning, COMSA has developed its own approach to organic agriculture, adopting the 5 “Ms” of organic agriculture over time: use of organic Matter (they compost everything); application of Microorganisms in compost (they make and grow their own microorganisms at the farm for farmers to buy and use and treat plant and soil maladies); exploring the use of Minerals (they also offer mineral ammedments for soil, as well as are currently growing mushrooms to eat, and also for soil amendments); production of fermented live Molecules; strengthening the gray Matter (ie brainpower) of their technical team (they host educational classes for area farmers as well as other coffee producing countries), members, and strong educational program with their youth and women’s groups. They have a school for their farmer's children to attend. They are even helping newer and smaller area farmers to develop their coffee growing knowledge, as well as letting them use their milling equipment, such as microdot farmers like Karla Portillo and Oscar Omar Alonzo (both of which we have carried their coffees before)!
Green bean bagging. Safety first.
They do everything on site at COMSA: collect fresh coffee cherry from area farmers, they wash the cherries away, they let the washed coffee sit for a minimum of 12 hours and from there, depending on the next steps, sometimes ferment the coffee longer. The coffee is either sun dried or dried in their 20,000 lb. capacity air dryers! They have (10) 20,000 lb. dryers and the beans take 10-12 hours to fully dry. From the there, the coffee is bagged and stored in warehouses where the bags are stacked 20-30 ft. into the air! From there the coffee goes to the dry mill up the road to be de-stoned, sorted for imperfections and defects, the parchment removed when applicable, and then once cleanly sorted, it is re-bagged again, then ultimately bagged in burlap (which they screen print on site too) - phew all the steps, they do it all! They even roast at the dry mill. They roast on a Probat for local markets, but also to offer the facility to smaller area farmers to roast their own coffee for sale in local markets. Everything at COMSA is about sharing and educating.
Coffee cherries in varying degrees of ripeness
Amongst the coffee processing COMSA campus is also a bio-dynamic regenerative farm called La Finca Fortlenza, where they make their own compost, their own lactobacillus, microorganisms, they grow flowers and mushrooms, they have pigs and chickens, they recycle, and grow organic produce to serve the guests who come to visit and learn. COMSA offers organic soil amendments to their 1,600 farmers. If a farmer is having a particular plant or soil problem, they can come to the COMSA farm to help amend their soil and strengthen the health of their coffee plants. The national collection of plastics only recycles 2 of the 5 plastics made in Honduras, so COMSA pays locals to collect plastic, then they crush the plastic to make garden posts, which farmers can buy for the same cost it would to get lumber from the lumber yard. They really do it all!
Screenprinted burlap bags. You can see Coop Coffees - second row, 3rd in
We were greeted and hosted by Grasia Penalba the social media manager and tour guide of COMSA. She is also the daughter of the General Manager, and one of the original founders of COMSA, Rodolfo Penalba. Their family welcomed us into their facilities and homes with open arms. Their warmth and honesty, transparency and kindness, was palpable in everything they do. I asked Grasia at one point if they were just getting together for dinners with their farmers because we were visiting, she said no, they have dinner and visit their farmers homes often, "We are one big family." It was so evident how much they care. They care about the health of the plants and soil, which is why they use organic practices. But also they care about their community and the longevity of coffee farming in Marcala. They truly care about their farmers and their coffee. They have a school for local children and mostly their farmer's children where they are taught in a holistic method encouraging self-discovery and development, learning multiple languages from a very young age - French, English, Spanish, Japanese, German - so they can be equipped to navigate the languages of some their largest coffee purchasing countries around the world. And, the youth actually wants to work in coffee at COMSA, which is a growing problem in coffee producing countries all over the world, youth leaving for other opportunities. Not at COMSA, they see it as a prideful, well-paying livelihood, like their parents and grandparents have done.
Our fearless leaders: Felipe from Coop Coffees and Grasia from COMSA
I feel beyond honored to have had my first coffee origin trip to COMSA in Marcala, Honduras. Coffee people say it changes you and I can confirm it does. It makes you appreciate coffee even more than you already did. I have always loved coffee and savored every cup. But moreso now, do I fully understand that it is truly a wonder we get to enjoy coffee at all outside of coffee producing countries! The work and so many, many hands that go into planting, caring for, harvesting, washing, drying, rotating, bagging, de-stoning, cleaning, bagging again, transporting with care, warehousing, transporting again for those 150 lb. bags to get all the way to our Roastery. Where they are are again lovingly hand roasted, hand sorted, mixed, and bagged, by the lovely staff here at 44, so that you can enjoy your cup of Honduras in your bathrobe each morning. Wow oh wow! Just wow! In awe of coffee and the incredibly hard working folk that make it possible. I hope you are too.
Coop Coffee staff
Our morning coffee views
Traditional Honduran dancers at Karla Portillo's Finca La Planeta Verde
Alix & one of Coop Coffee founders Bill Harris of Cafe Campesino and Sweetwater
Planting baby coffee trees
Crew getting around on the dirt roads ;)
Oscar Omar Alonzo. Such a passionate coffee farmer.
Every coffee farmer brewed us their coffee in the fields among their coffee plants
We visited a gorgeous waterfall
Trekking to Karla's farm
Karla and her plants
A very healthy and full coffee plant
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