Blanca Mancía, Finca Plan del Rosario

Twenty years ago, when I was still pretty and youthful…

– Blanca smiles with a twinkle in her eye  while she says this – my husband started to grow coffee. Less than a year later, I was hooked as well, and we decided to buy all the land we could afford with our savings. 

We had just returned from the US, where we had lived for several years, to save as much money as we could. But we never really felt at home there; we were what they call ‘illegal’ and constantly had to watch over our shoulders for fear of law enforcement. One speeding ticket would have been enough to send us through the horrors of detention and then, deportation. So, we decided to return to Honduras on our own, as soon as we had made enough money to start a business here.

Now, safely settled in the gentle surroundings of our own land, we feel secure and at home, and our grown sons are, not surprisingly, passionate about coffee as well. We also have a daughter but she moved to El Salvador recently to study foreign languages at the university there. We live less than three kilometers from the border, so it’s much closer than moving to our own capital, and she can come home once a month.

Anyway, nowadays our sons, who are young and strong, do much of the heavier work, like de-pulping and washing. But I’m the one in charge of preparations and processing. I make sure that the beans dry at the right rhythm, that they dry equally, and I choose the type of preparation for each batch. Now, I know exactly when a lot is ready, I only need to glance at it and absorb the aromas to imagine what it will taste like once it is roasted and brewed. 

Next year, God willing, we will build a solar dryer with the income we hope to receive from our current lots. It would allow me to worry less about the occasional rainfall that may occur at night, and to have more control over the drying process while also further increasing quality.

I’ve focused a lot on natural and washed coffees but am now noticing that there is a growing interest in honey, so I have started to experiment with that as well. 

Soon, I will be able to send some samples of the first results!

Farm facts

7,5 hectares at an average 1,330 meters. We mostly grow Parainema and Lempira, although we have some Pacas as well. 

There are cypresses and ‘pepeto’ for shade, which we planted, but we are fortunate to have a lot of pine trees on our finca, as well as surrounding forest.

We use izote and cypresses as barriers for the limits of our land as well.

The finca is FTO certified.

This farm is Rain Forest Alliance certified.