Gerardo Moreno is a third generation coffee producer and son of coffee Patriarch Daniel Moreno. Daniel Moreno started coffee farming in 1963 with the purchase of La Sierra. Don Daniel passed away in April, 2018, and his legacy is a coffee farming dynasty in Santa Barbara. His sons and their children consistently produce complex and unique coffees which we have been buying for several years now.
Parainema is a relatively unusual hybrid created in the 1980’s by IHCAFE, Honduras’ national coffee research center and like most hybrids created by associations, its origins come in fighting pests and disease that threaten the local crops. In the case of Parainema, it brings resistance to leaf rust and nematodes, the latter being a particular problem with the tradition of planting coffee alongside banana plants. While being tolerant and/or resistant to most of the major coffee diseases, it still retains good cup quality, making it a good option for farmers used to growing Pacas and struggling with disease.
It is challenging to process coffee cherries in areas like these, which are close to the jungle and thus, to rain. The drying process, in particular, is especially demanding. But when these processes are precisely controlled, seemingly problematic factors (like drying under challenging conditions) are what make coffee from this area particularly interesting. The coffee produced here cups with flavour attributes not found anywhere else in Central America.
