Honduras, Marcala Lenca

Expect notes of Milk Chocolate, Sultana, Caramel.

Back in March of 2020 we met Nancy Hernandez, not on her farm but in the café roastery she’s built in the town she calls home in La Paz. At the time, we were blown away not only by the delicious coffee Nancy creates, but by the place she had built to enjoy it. It became a cherished memory once the world shut down, one last coffee with a producer we admired before everything changed.

Two years ago, Nancy told us about the local indigenous Lenca community, who produce coffee in tiny volumes on their land. They’ve got lots of expertise, but don’t have access to the speciality coffee market. These coffees from around 20 families have been combined and then processed by Nancy, using her knowledge of the coffee trade. We think that this coffee makes the perfect everyday drinker, with sweet and clean flavours of caramel, milk chocolate and dried fruits. Delicious!

The Lenca people, who number more than 450,000, are the largest indigenous community in Honduras and make up over 60 per cent of the indigenous population. The Lenca live in the central department of La Paz, and the western departments of Lempira, Ocotepeque and Itibuca, as well as in some smaller communities in the northern part of the country.

There are about 612 Lenca communities, many in remote hard-to-reach mountainous areas that lack basic services such as running water, roads or transportation. Lenca men engage in agriculture including coffee cultivation. The increasing resurgence of Lenca traditional arts such as weaving and pottery by Lenca women is helping to generate income as well as to preserve cultural traditions. Although the Lenca have not retained their language, traditional Lenca social structures remain strong, and the Lenca traditionally expect all members to participate in communal life.