In the family-owned Finca Valentina, everybody gathers not in front of the fireplace but around the coffee pot
As you already know, for the first time in DABOV Specialty Coffee’s catalog we have a coffee from the Obata variety thanks to Finca Valentina from Honduras – Honduras Finca Valentina.
Let us have a walk around Finca Valentina
Finca Valentina was founded in 2013 by Bayron Evelio Peña Peña. With this name, he wanted to honor his mother and his daughter. Today, the farm boasts 19 hectares of coffee plantation. They grow Obata, Lempira, Pacamara, and Parainema Arabica varieties. The farm is in the Santa Barbara mountains and is managed with dedication and utmost care from the plantation to the final process. With a respect to social norms and friendly to the environment, in Finca Valentina, they produce specialty coffee with strict quality standards.
Where is Finca Valentina located
Finca Valentina is located in the El Retiro Village, municipality of Chinda, Santa Barbara, (approximately forty minutes driving from the city of Trinidad) amid a humid tropical forest, surrounded by coffee plantations. It is situated between 1150 and 1200 m and the average temperature is 18 – 22 C degrees. Its diverse terrain is home to different varieties of plants which provide ideal habitat for the coffee trees. Around the coffee trees, there are fruit trees, citruses, avocados, figs, bananas, cassava, ornamental, floral and timber trees.
How many harvests per year are there in Finca Valentina
The harvest of the coffee is once a year. In March, starts the flowering of the coffee tree which last only about four days. The coffee cherry then develops until November, when the harvest begins. Only the cherries that have reached the right point of maturation are handpicked.
Why do they grow specialty coffee in Finca Valentina
Producer Erica Peña from Finca Valentina, sister of Byron, shares with us: “Our family has been dedicated to coffee for many years, but we have been producing it in a conventional manner. In 2017, we set ourselves the challenge of entering the world of specialty coffee to obtain a distinctive coffee in order to add value to our product. Coffee is a food and we took a different approach to our farm, bringing benefits to our family and the families who work daily on the farm and, of course, the greatest value of our specialty coffee is to build long-term relationships with our customers, their consumers and our coffee producing communities.
How did Finca Valentina perform in Oro de Santa Barbara
In Oro de Santa Barbara 2018, where Jordan Dabov was part of the jury, Finca Valentina presented two lots of Obata variety. They won the 4th and 15th place in the Medium size producer ranking during with 86,42 and 83,17 points respectively.
Have a look at this video of Bayron Peña…
in which he admits that they are very happy that they can sell their coffee Honduras Finca Valentina directly to DABOV. “This really helps us in our work that requires a lot of sacrifice and dedication. The idea is to take part in this big commercial line and be able to export our best products.”
It is time that you appreciated Honduras Ventura – the coffee personally chosen by our coffee hunter Jordan Dabov from Oro de Santa Barbara
At the end of April 2018, Jordan Dabov was among 25 jurors from 11 countries who cupped 60 coffee lots in Santa Barbara region of Honduras during Oro de Santa Barbara competition.
What is Oro de Santa Barbara
The competition for specialty coffee Oro de Santa Barbara takes place in Honduras for the 4th year. The national jury had selected coffees that would be cupped by the international jury whose tas was to select the top 10 best specialty coffees from Honduras. It is a great joy and honor for us that our coffee hunter Jordan Dabov was invited to be part of the jury.
“The event in Santa Barbara was of great importance to the farmers there,” commented our founder Jordan Dabov. “The main idea was to show them that they could sell their coffee for a higher price than the usual they get. Most of them had never heard of such auctions, and the high-quality coffee produced in most cases went to the cooperative where it usually was paid for quantity and not quality. In this sense, the event was extremely beneficial for farmers, who thus are motivated to produce better coffee, experiment with the processing of coffee and search for a delicious cup of coffee.”DABOV outbid other buyers during the auction for three coffees
After the competition a highly competitive auction took place. Jordan Dabov succeeded in outbidding other buyers for three specialty coffees he had tasted during the competition. “I have chosen three lots from two farms,” Jordan Dabov said immediately after the auction. “I have met the farmers and have tasted their coffee. I really wanted their coffee to reach European coffee lovers and to pay a fair price for their work so that they are motivated next year to produce again such a special coffee.”
Honduras Ventura – melon, melting in dark chocolate
Edwin Ventura’s coffee – Honduras Ventura gained the impressive 86,45 points. It impressed our coffee hunter Jordan Dabov with its wonderful taste, dominated by dark chocolate, melon, and notes of stone fruits. It is winey and has a sweet aroma. The variety is a Catuaí-Paca and comes with a clean cup and balanced acidity.
Young Finca Ventura already grows expressive specialty coffee
Finca Ventura’s coffee Honduras Ventura won the 17th place from Oro de Santa Barbara even though the farm is quite young. Its owner Edwin Ventura opened it on Nov. 28, 2013. But he comes from a family that has grown coffee for already three generations. Today, Finka Ventura grows coffee on 2 hectares with unique agro-ecological conditions.
Despite the unavoidable difficulties at the beginning, Edwin does not give up and just two years after the foundation of his farm, in the 2015/2016 harvest he already enjoys the first batches of specialty coffee, which he processes through a natural and semi-dry process. A year later, the number of micro lots increased to 75%. The average rating for Finca Ventura’s coffees from SCA is 87.5 points. Edwin Ventura intends to grow avocados to diversify the farm’s production and use the by-product of the coffee – cascara, from which they traditionally make tea. He also plans to plant the variety Parainema, Cup of Excellence winner for Best Coffee for 2015 and 2017 in Honduras.Do you know that…
The department of Santa Barbara registers about 16 thousand coffee growers, those who harvest ten percent of the national production, about one million bags among the municipalities with the highest production are, Atima, San Nicolás, Colinas and also the Santa Bárbara mountain. During the harvest period, the coffee sector generates one million direct and indirect jobs, represents the second source of foreign currency, after remittances, it benefits about 20% of the Honduran population that directly or indirectly depends on the crop.