Vitriolic Hiss

Suitable for all brewing methods.

Producer

Pedro Erazo

Farm

El Milagrito

Region

El Cedral, Santa Barbara

Varietal

Pacas

Washed

Altitude

1,500 - 1,600 MASL

Pedro Erazo farms in El Cedral, in the Department of Santa Barbara. He set out to grow vegetables, found the returns would not carry his family, and replanted the land with coffee while keeping the peach and avocado trees already standing. His first harvest sold on the specialty market and cleared his debt. He named the farm El Milagrito, the little miracle. Three more farms have followed since.

El Cedral holds a set of micro-climates formed by shifting altitude and the terrain running off the mountains. Cherry ripens slowly here, and harvest carries from January as late as June, well past the main Honduran season. Picking runs every 15 to 20 days and takes red cherry only, hand sorted at the wet mill. Coffee is pulped the day it is picked, dry fermented in concrete pools for 15 hours, then washed three times.

Drying is slow and covered. The parchment goes onto raised African beds inside solar dryers for 12 to 15 days, turned every 30 minutes through daylight hours, and held to 10 to 12 percent moisture before resting in parchment until milling. Pacas at this altitude gives a defined, structured cup with weight through the middle and a clean, sweet finish.