For another year in a row comes the return of one of the most ambitious specialty coffee projects that we have come across, and it delights us to experience and share it with you. Leonid Ramirez and his immediate family grow and process an impressive variety of Arabica cultivars. Leonid Ramirez took a risk, selling most of his personal property to invest resources and time into his coffee. Till today we still believe it was very much worth it.

One of 3 unique processes, this coffee is grown at Finca La Cortina de Hierro. Leonid's coffee's inherent high quality and complexity combined with expert processing form spectacular coffees. This lot is the honey process of the trio that we are roasting this year.

There are several takes on a 'honey' process. The core idea is to remove the coffee cherry's skin while leaving a controlled amount of mucilage (fruit flesh). There isn't any actual honey involved in the process. Depending on how much mucilage remains, we can produce varied results in flavour and complexity. Leonid expanded on his honey processing by putting his coffee cherries through a 4-step process. The first half of fermentation is whole coffee cherries in anaerobic and moved to regular (aerobic) environments. The second half of fermentation is the pulped coffee cherries in both anaerobic and moved to aerobic environments again, before drying on raised beds.

Our exporting partners at Cofinet provide immense support to Leonid Ramirez in his production and processing. Offering advice and improving his farming practices, infrastructure, and processing most of his washed and honey lots locally at the farm level. What makes Leonid Ramirez's coffee stand out is that he offers his different Arabica cultivars in their own range of processes. It's rare to find a single farmer's coffee available in unique processes.

From this relationship, Leonid receives an increased income with as much as four times more than the local market rate for his raw and processed coffee. This has allowed Leonid to invest back into the farm and improvements to his family's living conditions. As it should be, great coffee and good people.