Benigno Mejia Parainema, Honduras

Benigno is back, baby! Light and bright with herbaceous tones of elderflower and chamomile, Benigno Mejia's Parainema is a longtime GGET favorite. A li'l fruit leather on the kicker, too.

Roast Profile

Light

Dark

Flavor Profile

Citric

Earthy

We came to know Benigno Mejia by way of Benjamin Paz during a May 2018 trip to Honduras, and we've been purchasing his coffee for years now. His farms are run and managed by his son, Benigno—or “Ninito”—in Las Flores, Santa Barbara. The area may be best loved for Pacas variety coffees, but we love the fresh and floral perspective on this region's coffees that Benigno's Parainema showcases.

Varieties

Parainema

Roast

Medium

Processing Method

Washed

Drying Method

Patio

Benigno plants 60% Parainema variety coffee and 40% Pacas on his farm, and we enthusiastically purchase both. This lot features Parainema, a variety developed by the Honduran farmers association (IHCAFE) to be hearty and disease resistant—capable of producing good volumes at lower elevations with low risk. Varieties like this have become desirable within specialty coffee in recent years, as producers have begun to experiment with longer ripening of the coffee cherries on the tree to delicious result.