LAS CHACAS - Ending Soon

Here's what Falcon Speciality the importers of this coffee have to say about it.

Las Chacas Blend

This is a blend of two lots from Blanca Rosa Melgar and Reynaldo Antonio Pineda. The lot was blended at the Aruco Mill, where producers will receive about 70% of the FOB price for their micro lots. All the processing for the ML’s takes place at the Aruco mill to centralise and have greater control over the process to create consistent procedures but also to reduce the risk on the producer. The mill is also at 800masl which gives a drier more stable climate to dry the coffee compared to up at the farms where the weather can be less predictable.

The cherry is cleaned and washed and then floated to remove any immatures. It is then typically pulped and fermented in tanks for around 12 - 18 hours depending on the weather. This particular lot was processed using 72 hours of maceration before being taken to the drying beds. At Aruco, coffee is typically dried over 8 – 15 days (weather depending) where it is turned hourly.

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Blanca Rosa Melgar

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Blanca Rosa Melgar is the owner of 6 hectares of coffee in the Celaque area of Corquin, Copan. Blanca manages the farm with her husband, Arturo, and the couple have lived there since the 1970s. The farm is and has always been organic and Blanca and Arturo refused to apply any chemicals to the land. Amongst the coffee they grow several varieties of banana, orange, lemon and lime, guava and whole array of native vegetables. The family also have bee hives which they harvest honey from, mostly for consumption but also to sell locally, which provides them with a good additional income stream.

Blanca's sons Osman and Francis both work in the cooperative and have been part of the micro-lot project since the start. As they have seen huge increases in their household income, Blanca decided to produce as many micro-lots as possible. Given the altitude and the varieties they grow, it was decided that naturals would best suit the profile of the farm and they have had great success elevating the cup quality with processing.

This is the fifth year that Blanca has produced micro lots through the cooperative who know have 38 members in the micro lot program that has grown from just 4 in the past 4 years. The producers will receive about 70% of the FOB price for their micro lots. This year the harvest for all producers was extremely difficult with increased rains during the harvest and a lack of pickers meaning a large amount of coffee was lost from either falling to the ground or swelling and splitting on the tree.

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Reynaldo Antonio Pineda

¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬¬

Reynaldo Antonio Pineda is a 30 year old proud owner of Finca Las Chachas, he inherited the farm from his father José Ubence Pineda, that taught him how to run the farm since he was young preparing him to be the successor, that is the reason why he decided to involves all of his family in everyday activity necessary to smoothly run the farm.

Reynaldo is very committed in taking care of the farm in the best possible way, and we can see the results of his effort in the outstanding quality coffees that is producing and delivering to Aruco for processing.

Thanks to the better prices that he has been receiving for the lots that he has being selling throughout the world Reynaldo decided to dedicate more and more space on his farm to the production of Microlots for the specialty coffee market, improve the infrastructure in order to increase the quality levels and productivity.

Las Chachas is located at 1350 meter above sea level, and the main varieties that Reynaldo grows mainly Catuaí and IHCafé90 for a total production area of just above two hectares, all grown under a shade canopy of many different types of trees such as cedars, pines, oranges, banana trees and other fruit trees; on the farm there are many different type of wildlife with a mixture of reptiles, mammals and birds.

The farm take is name from a very popular birds that live in the area of Hichozal called by the locals Chacha.

Aruco is helping Reynaldo in many different ways, first of all by helping him marketing his coffees, as well as helping him with financing to enable him to look after his farm and implement improvements, another help that Reynaldo get is the technical assistance to develop the farm to produce specialty coffee.

• Despatched next working day
• We use recyclable & CO2 neutral packaging
• Roasted fresh every working day
• Free next day shipping when you spend over £30
• Free two day shipping when you spend over £25