FINCA HUMANA

Why Marcala?

I first travelled to Marcala, Honduras in 2010 as a judge for that year's Cup of Excellence competition.

I'd love to tell you that, sixteen years later, I can remember every remarkable coffee we tasted that week. I can't.

What I do remember very clearly is Marcala itself — the people, the farms, the extraordinary terrain, and one of those weeks in coffee that has stayed with me ever since.

Cup of Excellence brought together producers, judges and people from throughout the Honduran coffee industry. At the end of the week, the president of Honduras and members of his cabinet arrived for the awards ceremony, complete with helicopters and armed security.

At one point a friend suggested that I might want to move from where I was sitting. When I asked why, he pointed out the armed guard standing casually beside me with his rifle pointed directly at my head.

It was that kind of week.

There were quieter moments that stayed with me too.

After the competition we travelled on to visit producers and farms. We saw extraordinary coffee-growing terrain, got stranded on the side of a mountain after a deluge of rain, and spent time with people whose lives had been changed by the quality of the coffee they were producing.

One of my favourite photographs from all my years in coffee came from that trip: a black-and-white portrait of a producer named Bortillo Bortillo standing and looking across a farm he had been able to buy after winning Cup of Excellence the previous year.

So when this coffee from Marcala came across my table, there was an immediate connection. It gave me a reason to return, through coffee, to a place I hadn't forgotten.

A place built around coffee

Marcala has a long history with coffee and is recognized through the Denominación de Origen Café de Marcala — a protected designation of origin intended to preserve the identity of coffees produced in this region.

But what interests me more than the designation itself is what happens on the ground.

This coffee is connected to smallholder producers working with APROCOMSA — Asociación de Productores Orgánicos Café Organico Marcala. The cooperative works with more than 1,500 producer-members and places a strong emphasis on organic farm management, education, quality and long-term producer wellbeing.

There is a lot that can go wrong between ripe coffee cherry and a finished export lot. What stands out here is how deliberately APROCOMSA manages that entire path.

Finca Humana

At the centre of APROCOMSA's work is an idea they call Finca Humana — the Human Farm.

The idea is fairly simple: a successful farm isn't only about the coffee trees. It is also about the people who live and work there, the health of the soil, the surrounding environment, education, and whether farming can provide a meaningful future for the next generation.

APROCOMSA uses its La Fortaleza demonstration farm as a place to share knowledge about farming in harmony with natural systems. Producer education includes intensive seminars and practical work around the use of organic matter, soil health and productive farm management.

The cooperative also directs some of the proceeds from coffee sales toward education, including a school intended to give children in the community more opportunities for the future.

I like the fact that none of this sits apart from coffee quality. Better farming, better processing, stronger communities and better coffee are treated as parts of the same system.

Care after harvest

This is a washed coffee processed at APROCOMSA's centralized wet mill in Marcala.

Producers selectively harvest ripe cherry and deliver it to the mill, where the coffee is floated in water to remove underripe, damaged and less-dense fruit.

The cherries are then depulped and the coffee is fermented in tanks for approximately 24 hours. After fermentation, the remaining mucilage is removed mechanically using equipment designed to reduce wastewater.

The washed parchment coffee is then dried slowly on patios until it reaches approximately 11 percent moisture before being stored and prepared for export.

APROCOMSA also operates its own dry mill and cupping lab in Marcala. Coffees are evaluated, hulled and sorted by density and colour before export, giving the cooperative control over quality and traceability through much of the post-harvest process.

None of those individual steps is particularly glamorous. Together, they are the kind of disciplined work that gives a good coffee the chance to arrive tasting the way it should.

In the cup

This is a remarkably polished and expressive coffee, with layers that continue to unfold as it cools. We settled in on green apple, praline, and cocoa as the dominant notes, with hints of caramel, toasted almond, and baking spice adding depth and sweetness to the finish.

At the table

Pair it with an almond or chocolate croissant, a piece of good-quality chocolate, or Comté cheese. Each brings out a different side of the coffee, from its praline and cocoa sweetness to its bright green apple character.

Why Release No. 002

The Reserve Club gives us room to share coffees that deserve a little more attention — not simply because they're rare or expensive, but because there is something worth understanding about where they came from and how they were produced.

Marcala has stayed in my memory since that first visit in 2010.

This coffee gives me a chance to reconnect with that place while introducing you to the work APROCOMSA is doing there today — combining careful coffee production with a much broader idea of what a healthy and successful farm can be.

Sixteen years later, it feels good to have Marcala back on my table.

I hope you enjoy it.

— Poul