Overview
This is our second season purchasing from one of the most integral players in the Selguapa coffee growing scene. Jesus “Chungo” Galeas is a known figure amongst communities throughout the Comayagua Mountains, motivating neighboring farmers to work in specialty coffee and sharing knowledge to collectively increase quality.
His primary farm, La Falda, was inherited from his father in 2014, but it has been in production since the early 1980s - back when they were one of the very first coffee growers in the area. The region has since grown from just a handful of families to 1500 total inhabitants. 800 of these are coffee growers, and only 40 are involved in this specific collective that has achieved access to improved pricing via the specialty market.
Our importing partners, Semilla Coffee, share: The main problem, to hear them tell it, has been the basic lack of access to buyers and also to the requisite knowledge of specialty coffee quality standards. Without this access to markets and knowledge, these producers had no idea even the quality potential of their coffee, much less the profits to reinvest into the infrastructure necessary to depulp, ferment, and dry their coffee for sale as microlots. The spirit of this small and dedicated group of producers is above all communitarian and egalitarian. Jesus has played an integral part in motivating his fellow community members to focus on specialty microlot production, in large part due to his work with the Honduran Coffee Institute (IHCAFE). For seven years, he worked with the organization to assist coffee growers across the country in understanding the issues facing them, from handling soil analyses to giving instruction in harvesting and processing of coffee.
This selection of the Bourbon variety from Chungo is classically sweet, clean, and structured. The clear expressions of both sweetness and acidity are signs that this coffee was grown at a high elevation, picked at peak ripeness, and processed expertly. Red fruit flavors are guaranteed - though sometimes presenting more juicy, like fresh cherries, and sometimes presenting more rounded and balanced, like a caramel apple. Flavors are ever-changing from hot to cold and from days off of roast, making this one particularly fun to explore. We taste: red fruit punch, caramel apple, cherry pie, dried fruit, tootsie roll, root beer, baking spices, brown sugar, caramel, toffee, praline.
Relationship
The 2024 season marks our 4th year purchasing coffees from the Selguapa community via Semilla Coffee. We had the pleasure of spending a few days with Chungo when visiting in March of 2023, which significantly increased our understanding of both Honduran coffee production in general and more specifically the dynamics at play within the Selguapa community.
We’re particularly excited for the future of this project, as Jesus has recently become the main point of contact for Semilla. In previous years, coffees moved through other intermediary channels for organization and exportation. After years of lacking comprehensive support and transparency from this original intermediary, Jesus decided to strike out on his own to work as directly as possible with Semilla.
Semilla shares: Jesus has been integral to the development of specialty coffee knowledge in Selguapa and the Montecillos region generally. Relying on his background with IHCAFE, he’s offered training and support on everything from best practices around fermentation and drying to field assistance with planting new varieties and combatting diseases. He will continue to do serve this role with us, now reaching out to the neighboring communities of Cantoral, Pichingo, Torriles, and Buena Vista, and will now also serve as the contact point for all feedback from Semilla and our client network to the producers. With Jesus’ help, coffee quality has greatly improved through discussions around previous year’s crop results. In most cases, the group put an increased focus on improved fermentation and cooler, slower drying times in order to achieve more depth and vibrancy, as well as producing incredibly clean and sweet coffees.
Processing
The results from processing adjustments the past few seasons speak for themselves. We’ve experienced increased cup quality across all lots we tried from the Selguapa community, and in our and Semillia’s opinion, perhaps some of the very best coffees Honduras has to offer.
Cherries are picked daily at La Falda by a small team of 12 pickers. The coffee is then floated and depulped the same day. Finally, the coffee is dried on raised beds in a solar dryer (similar to a greenhouse) for a total of 20 days.
Brewing
Our offerings from Jesus Galeas are relatively forgiving in the brewing process, but there’s a definite sweet spot. Underextraction tends to bring out some particularly herbal, earthy characteristics, so be careful grinding too coarse. Leaning relatively finer is your safest bet. At its very best, the coffee presents a dynamic fruit (think cherries and baked apples) acidity with complex brown sugar sweetness and evolving flavors hot to cool. The finer the grind, the more you tame acidity and turn juicy fresh fruits into more dried fruit like raisin, prune, or date. Lots of sweetness and dessert-like flavor present throughout, providing ample balance to the cup.
If your coffee tastes vegetal, grassy, or sour like underripe fruit, try grinding finer.
If your coffee tastes drying like cacao nibs or roasted nuts, with muted, gritty flavors, try grinding coarser.
