Santa Lucia – Fincas Mierisch

One of the factors that built Santa Lucia’s reputation is its modern processing protocol. The fermentation stage is a particular highlight: Santa Lucia employs a 36-hour dry fermentation. This method is favored as it conserves water and speeds up the breakdown of the mucilage. The main challenge is Santa Lucia’s microclimate, often cool and humid in the evenings, which can favor mold growth. To overcome this, after the beans are washed clean of the parchment, they are transferred to raised drying beds inside greenhouses designed to provide 50% shade to control the drying speed.

The key differentiator is the extended drying time of up to 16 days, ensuring the coffee reaches a stable moisture content below 11%. Following this, the coffee is stored in the warehouse, in parchment form, for at least one month to homogenize the moisture within the bean. This is the crucial factor that determines the clarity, balance, and depth of flavor, helping Santa Lucia win over even the most demanding judges.

Santa Lucia not only rebuilt production but also became a nursery for rare coffee varieties. The most prominent of these is Gesha – the legendary coffee variety with characteristic aromas of jasmine, citrus, and a lingering sweetness. This is the very variety that has brought Santa Lucia its most prestigious awards.

Besides Gesha, Santa Lucia also cultivates Yellow Pacamara – a rare variant known for its complex and unique flavor. The selection and development of these varieties require a deep understanding of the local ecology and demonstrate Santa Lucia’s ambition to elevate Honduran coffee on the global map.

Santa Lucia took only a few years to transform from an unknown farm into one of the brightest names in Honduras. In 2019 and 2021, the farm won 1st Place in the Cup of Excellence Honduras with its Washed Gesha, a milestone that marked a huge leap in the coffee quality there.

Not stopping there, in 2022, Santa Lucia further affirmed its standing by winning 2nd Place in the Cup of Excellence Honduras with a unique combination of Gesha and Yellow Pacamara. This consecutive winning streak at the world’s most prestigious coffee competition proves its superior production capability and asserts that Santa Lucia has established a new standard for the entire region in cultivation, processing, and quality management.

We believe that a partnership is truly sustainable only when both sides share a common value system. And Santa Lucia embodies the values that XLIII Coffee is nurturing: unwavering pursuit of quality, dedication in every detail, and viewing coffee as a journey connected to people and the land.

The exceptional quality of Santa Lucia lies not in its size, but in how it maximizes the advantage of its small scale to meticulously care for every coffee tree, combined with an advanced and strictly controlled processing protocol. From harvest and fermentation to drying and storage, everything is executed with precision and persistence. This is proof of how value is built from small but sure steps, something XLIII Coffee always cherishes and maintains in its development journey.

Santa Lucia also shows that value is measured not just by scale or time, but by impact and recognition. In a short period, the farm has established its position on the world coffee map through prestigious awards. That success reflects the alignment in vision between Santa Lucia and XLIII Coffee: both aim for a future where coffee transcends the scope of a commercial product to become the result of passion, integrity, and the aspiration to set a new benchmark for the specialty coffee industry.