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Honduras Parainema: A Step Above the Rest!

Writer: Pawling Coffee
Pawling Coffee
Sep 28
2 min read

This is the 3rd new coffee from Altesa Coffee Imports, a company focused on direct trade relationships with small farms in Honduras. If you haven't read the previous articles about the Geisha or Yellow Catuai, take a minute to check them out so you can fully appreciate this new coffee offering. (Coffering?)


Flavor snapshot:

  • Semi Sweet Chocolate

  • Toasted Almond

  • Caramel


Parainema is a high-yielding, disease-resistant Sarchimor hybrid coffee variety developed in Honduras by IHCAFE (Instituto Hondureño del Café).


This variety was developed to withstand more challenging growing conditions, including heat, drought, low-fertility soils, and several of the diseases that commonly affect coffee plants. This one in particular is a yellow honey process, which for those of you who have followed me for a while, you know how much of a sucker I am for any coffee that's honey processed!


Sample Roasting:

Based on the initial sample roast, I knew this coffee could handle a much darker roast. Whenever I notice chocolate and almond notes in the tasting, it opens up a wider range of roasting levels. When those flavors show up, I can roast lighter and get milk chocolate and raw almonds, or roast darker and get dark chocolate and toasted almonds. Upon further tests, I determined the ideal roasting level was right before the 2nd crack begins with a relatively slow development stage.


Hot coffee: Pour-over

  • Measurements: I weighed out 1 1/2oz of beans and 22 fluid oz of water.

  • Temperature: Water was approximately 195℉

  • Grind size: Slightly more fine than a Chemex, using a standard paper cone filter with a Bodum pour over.

  • First tasting, 2 days after roasting: Of all the Honduran coffees I've had, this one buries the needle on the most notable characteristics from that region. It's naturally sweet and very full-bodied with a velvety texture.


Espresso: Single Shot, double-walled portafilter.

  • Measurements: I weighed out 1/2oz beans for just under 1/4cup of espresso.

  • Grind size: This one needed a slightly more coarse grind level to adjust for the double wall portafilter.

  • Pull time: 20 seconds.

  • Conclusion: At this roasting level, it doesn't require a whole lot of dialing in for your machine. The chocolate becomes deeper and the almond character shifts toward toasted nuts, with a caramel-like sweetness lingering after the shot.


Cold brew: 1 oz coffee by weight to 12 oz room-temperature water by volume with a 12-hour extraction.

  • Conclusion: Cold brew is great for bringing out chocolate and nutty notes, so a chocolate/almond-forward coffee prepared as such is just an explosion of flavor!


Final thoughts

This coffee is perfect for this time of year as the weather begins to cool slightly. Even as I write this article, the leaves are changing color and falling off as the morning chill sets in each day. Over the summer, everyone seems to crave the brighter fruitier coffees, but now that the temperature in the Hudson Valley is averaging below 70° people are beginning to ask about the heavier and darker coffees that, "Stick to your ribs."


This Honduras Parainema is certainly a step above the rest. Not quite capable of dethroning Queen Geisha, but undeniably one of the best coffees I've ever had from Honduras.



When you brew it yourself, I’d love to hear what you taste. You can order yours here:






 
 
 

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