Honduras Farmgate Santa Elena Catracha Herley Urquia Macerated Catuai – 29320 – GrainPro Bags – SPOT RCWHSE

Price $4.99 per pound

Bag Weight 155.38 lbs

Position Spot

Bags 2

Warehouses Oakland

Flavor Profile Orange juice, caramel, dark chocolate

About this coffee

Grower

Herley Urquia | Finca La Rosita

Altitude

1540 masl

Variety

Icatú

Soil

Clay minerals

Region

La Florida de Marcala, Marcala, La Paz, Honduras

Process

Anaerobic cherry fermentation, Fully washed process and dried on raised beds

Harvest

November 2021 - March 2022

Certification

Conventional

Coffee Background

This micro-lot was produced by Herley Urquia, one of the newest members of the Catracha producer group. Herley’s coffee might be a new offering this year, but Herley has been part of Catracha’s success for the past several years because Herley runs the dry mill called Villa Florida where Catracha lots are prepared for export. In addition to having a firsthand understanding about the quality of Catracha lots, Herley also has a passion for planting new cultivars, experimenting with processing innovations, and willingness to share his experience with the Catracha producer group. And this lot represents all of the above. This Icatu cultivar was first developed in Brazil for its combination of cup quality, high yield and disease resistance. Herely planted this lot of Icatu at La Rosita, a 30 acre farm in the community of La Florida de Marcala. After harvesting, selected ripe cherries were floated and held in water overnight, depulped the next day and fermented for 26 hours in a ceramic tank, washed and placed on raised beds to dry over a 20 day period. The adaptability of Icatu to the area and expressive cup quality using innovative processing methods holds potential for lowering risk and increasing yields for other producers in the Catracha group without compromising cup quality thanks to Herley’s trail blazing efforts.
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. This past harvest Catracha directly paid all contributing producers $2.09 per pound of exportable, green coffee. Herley, however, financed this microlot entirely himself, including dry milling, and thanks to the resulting quality received $4.00 per pound. A high annual price and the support to pursue ambitious personal projects like Herley's 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 people’s homes, and at many schools.
During the COVID 19 pandemic, group activities were suspended but women continued to make crafts and also masks to earn extra income. Artist visited homes to paint small works of art on windows and doors. They also painted stools and sold them for extra income. Many families also started family gardens and traded seeds to diversify their harvest.