Description
Planeta Verde — coffee from Honduras
Marcala is one of the best-known areas for Honduran coffee. It lies in the mountainous terrain of the Sierra de Montecillos, where coffee grows between 1,200 and 1,800 metres, almost always on small family farms and under shade.
Planeta Verde is at 1,600 metres and is run by Karla Patricia Portillo, third generation of a coffee-growing family. Her grandparents and parents worked the coffee in the traditional way; in 2020 she decided to steer part of the production towards specialty coffees, looking to see what the farm and the varieties could give if the management was refined.
For this microlot she works with Parainema and Icatú, two varieties chosen for how they adapt to the conditions of the farm. The coffee plot is not alone: it shares the land with guamos, avocados, zapotes, peaches, oranges and timber trees.
The guamos provide shade and, when they flower, attract bees and other pollinators. Woodpeckers, squirrels, rabbits and agoutis also pass through the farm. Karla describes it as part of the way she produces, not as an addition to the story of the coffee.
Honduran coffee with an anaerobic honey process
Once the cherry has been picked, this coffee follows a honey process with anaerobic fermentation. It is a method that keeps part of the mucilage during drying and adds a controlled fermentation stage before the process is completed.
Here, the processing goes with a coffee that starts from a farm at 1,600 metres, from two specific varieties and from a plot worked under shade. It is not just a matter of applying a technique after the harvest, but of adding that processing to the work already done in the field.
Planeta Verde is, therefore, a Honduran coffee tied to a specific place and a specific producer: Marcala, in the department of La Paz, and Karla Patricia Portillo. A microlot of Parainema and Icatú that reflects a family farm's shift towards specialty coffee without breaking with the way the farm has been worked for generations.
