Sourcing Details: Here is a rare opportunity to work with a next generation producer and COMSA, one of the most innovative coffee organizations in Honduras.
It starts with a concept called Finca Humana (the Human Farm) at Café Organico Marcala, S.A. (COMSA), where the wellbeing of humans is the core objective and educating more than 1,500 producer-members to successfully live in harmony with nature is everywhere.
At La Fortaleza, the COMSA biodynamic demonstration farm, the focus of transferring knowledge takes place through week-long seminars called Pata de Chucho (pawprints left by a stray dog), which aptly reveals COMSA’s dogged exploration for human productivity in harmony with nature.
The trailblazing ideas for using organic matter to productively cultivate high quality coffee is only a sliver of what COMSA teaches about the power of nature through the Finca Humana philosophy.
COMSA dedicates funding from the proceeds of coffee sales to run a cutting edge International school dedicated to filling children’s minds with possibility, and training them to be the future leaders of Finca Humana. Individual Producer Details: Pedro José Urquía Turcios is one of the new trailblazers who has been brought up with the COMSA philosophy.
He has his own farm called La María Bonita (named after his mother), where he cultivates coffee with organic farm management practices he learned at COMSA.
Pedro also practices meticulous harvesting standards, which includes selectively picking the Colombia Amarillo varietal from a 2.5 acre parcel using brix measurements to determine optimum ripeness, followed by hand sorting the cherries, and cherry floating to remove less dense and damaged beans.
Sorted cherries are depulped and fermented in sealed barrels for 100 hours, and then gently dried over a period of up to 18 days.
The results are an outstanding coffee worthy of being a single producer micro-lot. Exporting Details: Pedro’s dried coffee is transported to COMSA’s warehouse and dry-mill facility where coffee is received, cupped and selected for export.
COMSA’s preparation ensures traceability and quality control throughout the post harvest process, which is a vital resource for establishing higher prices for producers.