Honduras Santa Elena Catracha Sulma Lopez – 29316 – GrainPro Bags – SPOT RCWHSE

Position Spot

Bags 0

Warehouses Oakland

Flavor Profile Lemon, tropical, herbal, creamy

Please Note This coffee landed more than 8 months ago.

Out of stock

About this coffee

Grower

Sulma López | Finca Buena Vista

Altitude

1650 masl

Variety

Catuai 3000 plants -6 to 8 years

Soil

Clay minerals

Region

Adoberos, Santa Elena, La Paz, Honduras

Process

Fully washed and dried inside solar dryers that provide protection from the rain

Harvest

January - March

Certification

Conventional

Coffee Background

This micro-lot was produced by Sulma López on her 2-acre farm called Buena Vista in Adoberos a community within the municipality of Santa Elena within the department of La Paz, Honduras.  Sulma is part of a select group of producers who work with Catracha Coffee Company, which organizes monthly educational seminars that provide guidance for harvesting and coffee processing that is focused on quality. Traditionally, farmers in Santa Elena have sold their coffee in cherry to a middleman, eliminating the possibility of earning better prices based on the quality of the coffee.  With improved prices, Sulma has been able to improve her farm management practices using lime to control the pH of the soil, fertilizing with organic compost, and spraying organic fungicides to control levels of leaf rust.  These actions have improved the health of her farm and the quality of her coffee production. Sulma processes her coffee using her own micro-mill to depulp, ferment, wash and dry her coffee before delivering it to Catracha Coffee.

Mayra Orellana-Powell founded Catracha Coffee Company to connect her coffee growing community with roasters. Ten years later, Catracha Coffee has gained momentum with more than 80 producers and 20 roasters working together on sustainable relationships and a profit-sharing model, which has consistently paid at least $2.00 per pound directly to producers. This extra income helps increase each producer’s capacity to reinvest in their farm, and overtime, increase their standard of living.

The sale of Catracha Coffee also creates income for a non-profit called Catracha Community (a 501(1)(c)(3) nonprofit), which invests in income diversification opportunities without taking resources from a farmer’s bottomline.

Catracha Community hosts weekly workshops for women and youth to learn craft making skills.  Like the coffee, the focus is on quality.  With the help of talented volunteers, the group has been able to make many beautiful things and sell them through our network of coffee friends. They even have a name for the group, Catracha Colectivo.

Catracha Community has also established an art residence and studio in Santa Elena to host artists from Honduras and around the world.   These artists have been running art classes two days a week for over a year.  Every week more than 30 children come and learn art.  Art is starting to pop up everywhere around Santa Elena.  There are more than 30 murals along the streets of Santa Elena, in peoples homes, and at many schools.

During the COVID 19 pandemic, we stopped hosting activities and now we have returned to host workshops.  Women continue to make crafts, pastries, and also masks to earn extra income.  Artists have been visiting homes to paint small works of art on windows and doors.  They have also been painting stools and selling them for extra income. Many families are also starting family gardens and trading seeds to diversify their harvest.