ROYAL GEM HONDURAS ORGANIC CAFESMO ROY HERNANDEZ NATURAL ANAEROBIC PARAINEMA

Roy Hernandez and his wife Dariela both inherited small coffee plots from their families, which they farm individually as Finca Guayabina (Roy’s) and Finca El Mandarino (Dariela’s). Combined, the two farms are 2.5 hectares of coffee. At such a restricted size, the best way to maximize revenues is through quality. After the birth of their second child, Dariela left her job to devote herself full-time to the production of microlots. Now, in 2026, they have direct buyers throughout Europe, New Zealand, and Royal Coffee in the United States. Extremely impressive for such small farms.

This anaerobically-fermented natural parainema lot is from Roy’s farm, Finca Guayabina. Fresh picked cherries were floated and thoroughly cleaned after harvesting and then fermented anaerobically in a sealed barrel for 48 hours, after which they were washed again and dried on raised screen tables. The cup is rich and balanced, with bright flavors and a delicate, slightly effervescent mouthfeel. This is an evocative but not overly assertive anaerobic natural—it’s juicy, with fresh cherry, grape, lychee, and a hint of bubblegum sweetness—which we consider to be very approachable to many and versatile in the roaster.

CAFESMO and Its Producers

Roy and Dariela are members of Cafés Especiales Mercedes Ocotepeque (CAFESMO), a 10-year old cooperative in Ocotepeque that puts a huge effort into microlot differentiation, giving motivated producers like them the chance to sell their best work directly to international buyers. CAFESMO started in 2016 with some very generous grant money from the World Bank. It was, and still is, a totally home-grown business in Mercedes, a tiny but beautiful mountain town in remote Ocotepeque, right on Honduras’ border with El Salvador.

CAFESMO produces about 75 containers a year but only exports about 15. The first 60 are sold domestically, to other exporters—something pretty common, and financially beneficial, for smaller coops without their own dry mill. With so much of their volume committed locally, they can focus on exporting just the best of the best: a few FTO-certified washed bulk containers, another couple containers of blended naturals, and finally, a few containers of single-farm lots like this one. Royal Coffee is one of only two CAFESMO buyers in the United States.

Parainema, the Americas’ Other Gesha

The parainema cultivar is still mysterious to many. It has a humble origin as a very specific hybrid developed by Honduras’ national coffee organization, IHCAFE. The name itself is a portmanteau of its purposes: “Parai-” for the southern department of El Paraíso, where it was designed to be cultivated, and “-nema” for the nematodes it was designed to withstand. But seeds made their way around. In 2015 a group of mature parainema trees inexplicably grown in the Santa Bárbara department produced a batch of coffee that won the Cup of Excellence competition, astonishing many judges with intense, perfumey cups. Growers ever since have been planting the cultivar in farms all over the country with quality in mind. And there have been a lot of really nice results.