Coffee StoryJose Santos Galeas is a first-generation farmer who grows the beautiful Paraniemia variety of coffee on his small six-hectare farm, Don Chepe, in Los Alpes, Jesús de Otoro, Intibucá, Honduras. Jose started his coffee production career later in life to find an alternative source of income while considering retirement as a teacher. He purchased a plot of land that would form Los Alpes, and the rest was history. Since 2005, Jose has spent most of his time on the farm, making it a peaceful place to spend his retirement years. Now 69, he’s only achieved his first truly profitable sale this year, having sold his coffee for market prices for the nearly 30 years he’s managed the farm. This reality is sadly much too common for the vast majority of Honduran smallholders. Once harvested at peak ripeness, these cherries undergo an extended fermentation, where they are stored in sealed plastic bags in the shade for 45 hours. They are then depulped and returned to sealed plastic bags, where they undergo a secondary fermentation of 35 hours. Once this time has elapsed, the coffee is rinsed off the mucilage and moved to the Galeas household, where it’s dried on raised beds, covered by 50% mesh, for 20-25 days. The coffee is covered in the evening, so it doesn’t absorb moisture or lose too much heat on cold nights. The coffee is tested for moisture of 10.5% before being removed from the drying beds and stored in Grainpro bags in a shaded environment.
