Honduras — Ramón Rodríguez La Bendición Pacas & Bourbon (Washed)

Tastes Like — 🍎 Red Apple • 🌰 Candied Hazelnut • 📅 Date • 🍬 Brown Sugar

DETAILS

• Producer: Ramón Rodríguez
• Farm: La Bendición
• Region: El Cedral, Santa Bárbara, Honduras
• Varietal: Pacas & Bourbon
• Process: Washed
• Altitude: 1580 MASL
• Size: 340g (12oz)

INTRO

Think of this as the elevated everyday drinker you didn't know you were missing. Ramón Rodríguez's La Bendición farm sits at 1,580 MASL in El Cedral, one of Santa Bárbara's most celebrated coffee-growing villages, and this Pacas-Bourbon blend is a near-perfect expression of what makes the region so beloved: vibrant acidity, profound sweetness, and a pleasant, round texture that makes every cup feel effortless.

Sweet fruits like red apple and dates mingle with more sugary notes — candied hazelnuts, brown sugar — to give this coffee an almost fair-food quality, like a candy apple rolled in chopped nuts. It's immediately inviting and quietly complex.

THE PRODUCER

Ramón Rodríguez planted his first farm on inherited land in 1982, initially growing vegetables whilst trading in the nearby Santa Bárbara region. He quickly fell in love with the area and by 1990 had purchased a plot in El Cedral, planting it with coffee. For years he sold his crop to San Vicente — the well-regarded Honduran export programme — but long resisted their encouragement to separate his harvest into specialty-grade micro-lots or enter the Honduras Cup of Excellence.

When he finally did enter, he surprised everyone — including himself — by taking 12th place nationally in his debut year. Since then, Ramón has become a committed specialty producer, and La Bendición has established itself as one of Santa Bárbara's most consistent and respected farms.

THE PROCESS

The Washed process at La Bendición involves:

• 🍒 Hand-picking at peak ripeness — cherries selected and delivered to the wet mill the same day
• 🔧 Depulping — skins removed promptly after harvest
• 🧪 Dry fermentation — parchment rested in concrete tanks for 17–22 hours
• 💧 Triple rinsing — parchment washed three times in the same tanks to remove fermentation byproducts
• ☀️ Solar drying — spread in solar dryers for 10–15 days until 9.5% moisture content is reached

The result is a textbook example of a well-executed washed Central American coffee — clean, sweet, and vibrantly expressive of both variety and terroir.

THE CUP

Vibrant, sweet, and satisfying, this is a coffee that rewards both casual drinkers and seasoned enthusiasts in equal measure. The Pacas-Bourbon blend brings a natural sweetness and round body that carries the fruit notes — red apple, date — with real elegance, whilst the brown sugar and candied hazelnut notes give it a warmth and depth that linger pleasantly through the finish.

Flavour Notes

• 🍎 Red Apple
• 🌰 Candied Hazelnut
• 📅 Date
• 🍬 Brown Sugar