Mauro Rodriguez

Blackberry // Stone Fruit // Pink Grapefruit Mauro Rodriguez's farm was the first coffee farm I ever set foot on, back in 2018. High in the mountains of Yoro, Central Honduras, he looked after me well — we shared a meal together that evening, and we've kept in touch on WhatsApp ever since. This coffee carries that relationship in every bag. The farm sits at 1,250 m.a.s.l. and is planted with Parainema, a rust-resistant hybrid varietal that, in the wrong hands, can taste harsh and woody. In Mauro's hands, it's something else entirely. By selecting only the ripest cherries and processing them carefully using the washed method — pulped, fermented for 12–24 hours, then dried — he coaxes out a cup that's light, delicate, sweet and genuinely complex. Roasted to a medium-light degree, the result is a balanced sweetness and acidity with tasting notes of blackberry, stone fruit and pink grapefruit. The story behind this coffee is one of resilience. In 2011, the region was devastated by a leaf rust epidemic that forced farmers to rip up their trees and start again. Then in 2020, two hurricanes in the space of two weeks left Mauro's village of Subirana cut off entirely after the only bridge was destroyed. They rebuilt. Because that's what they do round here. Mauro is president of COMISUYL, a co-operative that has invested heavily in recovery and sustainability — organic farming, a partnership with the Mesoamerican Development Institute, and integration with the Pico Pijol national park that allows European roasters to purchase carbon credits for CO₂ offsetting. Their central processing site runs on solar panels, which is genuinely unusual for Central America. Progressive doesn't quite cover it.