Katia is one of the progressive new generations of coffee farmers, located in Honduras, her San Isidro farm has been in the family for generations.

After growing up on the farm, Katia studied agronomy at a prestigious San Morano agronomic university in Honduras.

When a leaf rust epidemic destroyed most of their crop in 2012, it re-focused Katia to do things differently, and really dive into the specialty coffee world – becoming a certified roaster and barista.

While it took conversations with her father, he eventually gave Katia her own plots to farm. Five years later she’s producing excellent coffee by focusing on separating lots by variety and plot, she has pushed the quality potential to develop differentiated micro-lots offering unique characters.

Katia’s hard work in the coffee world was matched by her work in the local community where she was instrumental in building a new school, and developing a nutritional program.

We’re proud to roast Katia’s San Isidro, Honduras beans, and offer beans with such a rich story behind them.

Microorganism Processing Experimentation at Finca San Isidro

We reached out to producer Katia Duke to gain some helpful insight on the Microorganism Process, what it is and how it was accomplished. Katia sent along her write up explaining their experimentation with processing in particular to the Microorganism process.

One of the fascinating things about coffee is how versatile it turns out to be, it allows us to experiment from an early stage on the farm to the different options served by a cup and that is why during the last years at Finca San Isidro we have focused special interest on it. development of new processes with which we intend to develop exotic and unique profiles, in order to enhance the coffee experience of our customers.

We continue with our task of investigating, this year corresponds to the validation of the process we carry out with microorganisms that resulted in an exceptional coffee, we consider this process with high potential as well as a solution for other producers through which they increase quality at a low cost.

To achieve success in this process we must provide our coffee trees with the necessary nutrients in order to achieve a high quality fruit that facilitates the microbiological intervention that we naturally find in our environment, make decisions based on temperature variations on the days that the collection and post-harvest is carried out. The nature of this experiment is based on the use of the variables temperature, fermentation times and the addition of a broth of microorganisms from our mountain with which we promote in the initial stage the colonies that form bacteria, as well as the yeasts, each of them. The groups present work on their respective metabolic processes at room temperature in a range of 13-37 C, we measure PH in intervals and when ranges between 3-7 are reached, fermentation is interrupted giving way to washing the coffee, this process in terms of time can take 5 days to remove the mucilage by washing the beans, then the coffee is placed in African beds to be exposed to the sun and the air flow that the location of our facilities gives us for an approximate time of 25 days, the drying process is carried out manually and slowly to achieve the highest quality. Results in the cup gave us an exceptional coffee, balanced, with a present body, with notes of tropical fruits, sugar cane, peach, with a sweet and prolonged aftertaste.

Brewing Recipes

French Press

35g of course ground coffee

500ml of 200F water

Steep for 4 minutes

Hario V60

18g of medium ground coffee (#5 on Baratza Vario)

300ml of 200F water.

Prime filter with water ensuring it is completely damp.

Pour grounds in. Pour 65ml of water ensuring grounds are completely saturated. Let bloom for 15 seconds

Pour remaining 235ml of water over grounds starting from the center then circling slowly outward.

Give grounds a quick stir ensuring grounds do not stick to the sides of the filter during the draining process.

Aeropress

17g of medium ground coffee (#5 on Baratza Vario)

265ml of 200F water

Prime filter then add grounds.

Saturate grounds with 65ml of water and let bloom for 15-20 seconds

Slowly pour remaining 200ml of water over grounds.

Steep for 1 minute before plunging.