Let’s start this week off with another one of Theodore’s Coffee Roasters’ selections from Honduras. Theodore’s released five Honduran coffees all at once recently and, being a roaster that knows Honduran coffee probably better than any other out there, I was pretty excited! Slurp!
Theodore’s Coffee Roasters
Purchase this coffee for $19/12oz (with free shipping!)
Other reviews in this series: Lurvin-Pacas | La Fraternidad
THEODORE’S COFFEE ROASTERS HONDURAS PARAINEMA
Theodore’s Coffee Roasters’ owner, Darwin Pavon, is Honduran and he spent many years working in Honduras taking soil samples in a study to develop better fertilizers for coffee farmers. This work led Darwin to establish many relationships with farmers in his home country, and years later, those relationships are paying off, big time, for this Owosso, Michigan-based roaster. Theodore’s has sent me a ton of coffee this year and all of it has been excellent, so I’m excited every time a box lands on my porch from them! I’ve reviewed two of these five Honduran selections already (links above), so check those out, too.
This morning’s coffee is from El Playon, owned by Don Israel Ventura. Don Ventura is Lurvin Ventura’s father (see the Lurvin-Pacas review for more story). Don Ventura has grown many varieties at his farm and this lot is a cultivar known as Parainema. Cultivars are cultivated varieties and, in coffee, the words “variety” and “cultivar” are generally thrown around by non-botanists like me to mean the same thing… a particular type of coffee with its own unique characteristics. These Parainema beans are large and look about the size of Pacamara to me. This same cultivar won the 2017 Cup of Excellence in Honduras and Nicaragua. Theodore’s gives us tasting notes of, “sweet white chocolate, creamy and silky citrus with nutty and sweet cacao nibs.” Sounds like a chocolate bomb, so let’s rip into it!
I’m using my standard pourover setup of a 1:16 ratio of 28g of coffee to 450g of Third Wave Water. Handground grinder is set to 3 and I’m using a notNeutral Gino with Kalita 185 filter. I get a nice medium-heavy body from this coffee and, as promised, a lot of chocolatey notes, but it retains a nice amount of high notes in the citrus acidity, too. This is definitely a chocolatey/nutty coffee. The heavy body has lots of milk chocolate and finishes with a more bitter, but no less pleasing, cocoa powder note for me. There is a bit of almond and lots of pecan and walnut in the flavors for me, too. Giving this coffee a bit more high end is a nice orange juice acidity that is soft and round but adds some necessary to balance to this cup.
This is a quick review because the week is starting insanely busy on this Monday morning so I don’t have time to dilly dally, but suffice to say this Honduran selection is clean, easy drinking, balanced, inviting, accessible and delicious like the other two. What more can I ask for? Another beautiful coffee from the gang at Theodore’s Coffee Roasters!