Plum Runner

This coffee comes from the best tasting daylots of Nelson Vallecillo. Nelson’s coffee is one I am very familiar with, given that his farm is only a 5-minute walk from our coffee farm in Honduras. His farm is located in the Ocotillo region in Santa Barbara, sandwiched between the larger municipalities of El Cielito and Las Flores. The farm can only be accessed by foot or by mule, often creating complications for Nelson, especially during the rainy season where the road from El Cielito is often undrivable. Planting, picking, fertilizing and mulching become that much more difficult when the farm doesn’t have easy road access.

So why does he grow coffee there if it’s so hard?! Well, the growing conditions are nearly perfect for producing top notch coffee – his farm is high, over 1800m in elevation and his maturation is very slow as a result. The way his land slopes, he also benefits from some wind and cold protection, which is crucial at this elevation.

Nelson grows Yellow Catuaí, which, in my opinion, almost always outperforms Red Catuaí. At this elevation, the plants seem happy and healthy. I have liked how the variety performs on Nelson’s farm so much that we have made plans to also plant some Yellow Catuaí on our farm. 

Nelson dries the coffee on raised beds using shaded parabolic dryers, based on a design we introduced to his father back in 2012. This type of dryer greatly slows down the drying time, preventing damage to the bean and prolonging the coffee’s shelf life. Nelson’s coffee is consistently one of the sweetest coffees we buy from Honduras!