Napo – espresso from Honduras

This coffee is unfortunately sold out, but we plan to have it back with the next harvest .

The black honey process gives the coffee a softer, fuller texture than we are used to in coffee. The distinctive acidity of the "Marcala coffee" is somewhat weakened by the post-harvest process, so that Napo's espresso has a great sweet-acidic balance. Notes of orange and marzipan accompany a syrupy mouthfeel.

Napo - Green Coffee Information

Origin: Honduras, Marcala La Paz, Conejo Farm

Producers: Napoleon Zelaya Conreras

Varieties: Typica, Bourbon – 100% Arabica

Post-harvest process: Black honey - pulped, then dried with lots of mucilage

Arrived at the roastery: August 2023

This is how we would prepare the Napo

For the Napo, we opted for a classic recipe for light espressos. This allowed us to emphasize the texture and balance. If you want to give the flavors a little more room to develop, you should increase the extraction ratio.

Tell me more about Napo

Napo is Flhor's brother and represents the next generation of the Zelaya Contreras family, who were among the organic coffee-growing pioneers in Honduras 30 years ago. The focus of 18 Conejo's work is soil health. The better the soil, the more resilient the coffee plant. We support agricultural approaches that work regeneratively and understand coffee production holistically. This also includes the production of our own fertilizer, which makes producers less dependent on market fluctuations. Napo runs the family's own farm outside of Marcalas and tries out new post-harvest processes every year. This year he made a black honey for us.

Why did we buy this coffee?

Because he shows how coffees from Marcala can still taste good. Most coffees from Marcala are washed, including the coffees from 18 Conejo. With a few sacks they try out other post-harvest presses, black honeys are very rare - the drying of a lot of mucilage on the seed. Napo is constantly refining the process and this year was in contact with Cafelología from Mexico to refine the processing steps.

Why does coffee taste the way it does?

The black honey process gives the coffee a softer, fuller texture than we are used to in coffee. The distinctive acidity of the "Marcala coffee" is somewhat weakened by the post-harvest process, so that Napo's espresso has a great sweet-acidic balance. Notes of orange and marzipan accompany a syrupy mouthfeel.  

How do we roast this coffee?

As a 20kg batch on our 30kg roaster. We roast the coffee through in 11:40 minutes and develop it for 1:45 minutes (15%). After eight minutes we gradually reduce the energy before reducing the gas completely after 1 minute in the development time. In this roast we emphasize the texture as well as the rich sweetness .

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