Cupping Notes

Smooth and well rounded with a sweet, creamy character. Look for notes of citrus and milk chocolate, with a subtle caramel sweetness, balanced acidity, medium body and a clean, satisfying finish.

Bio

Honduras Calan SHG EP comes from the mountainous Siguatepeque region of Comayagua, where smallholder farmers deliver their coffee to the Cooperativa Cafetalera Siguatepeque Limitada, better known as COHORSIL. Royal Coffee has been purchasing coffee from the cooperative since 2005, drawn to its remarkably consistent quality and carefully managed processing.

COHORSIL works with farmers across the surrounding mountains, receiving ripe coffee cherries at a network of six regional wet mills. Each mill follows the same carefully controlled process, beginning with a floatation step that removes damaged and lower-density cherries. The coffee is then depulped, fermented for approximately 18 hours and washed with a low-water demucilaging system. After another round of density sorting, the parchment is pre-dried on patios before being moved to COHORSIL's centralized mill in Siguatepeque.

There, the coffee is dried slowly in horizontal dryers called guardiolas, using recycled coffee parchment as the fuel source. The cooperative also operates its own cupping laboratory and maintains ISO 9001 quality-management certification, helping ensure consistency from one harvest to the next.

COHORSIL's work extends well beyond coffee. The cooperative produces organic fertilizer from coffee pulp using California earthworms, operates a large greenhouse for vegetable seedlings and maintains a network of agricultural supply stores serving its members. Calan is therefore more than a regional blend of smallholder coffees. It is the product of a cooperative infrastructure designed to give farmers better tools, better processing and a reliable path to market.