The story of Cafe Ixchel began in 1975 when Senor Adan Duke began growing Arabica coffee at finca San Isidro, a picturesque farm located in the lush mountains of south Copan Ruinas, Honduras.
San Isidro is settled in an excellent high-altitude climate containing blessed soil conditions. Together with the love and care of the Duke Family, the plantation has grows its own premium, eco-friendly coffee. The flavour, richness and aroma of Katia's coffee is unmatched. In addition to the shade trees, Finca San Isidro is home to more than 180 plants and wildlife species including orchids, toucans, hummingbirds, butterflies and many others.
Over the past 7 years, Katia's family farm has transitioned from conventional to specialty coffee production. The empowerment of women has been fundamental to this transformation. Women are engaged throughout the entire process including hand picking, wet mill processing, quality control, and manual selection of the best beans. Their passion and commitment enables our world-class specialty coffee production. Having been recently to this farm, we have seen first hand the loving care for the land, the people and the coffee.
Producer Katia Duke is overcoming many challenges as she continues to harvest some beautiful tasting Honduran coffee. She has learned that altitude plays but one part of the equation in the production of specialty coffee and equally important is the terroir, the workers and their commitment to better picking, predicting unpredictable weather patterns and so much more. She has fundraised and built a school on the farm and a separate kitchen. Her current project is to build a kindergarten; we donate 0.10c a pound towards this project.
Coffee Specifications
Roast: Medium
Country: Honduras
Region: Copan
Producer: Katia Duke
Farm: San Isidro
Variety: Catuai, Obatá
Process: Fully Washed
Harvest: December–March
Tasting notes: Sweet aroma, creamy with chocolate base, caramel and sweet berry notes.