Honduras Finca La Esmeralda 72 Hour Anaerobic Natural Organic
It’s back from our farms to your homes. Honduras Esmeralda Natural 72 Hours. Sweeter, fruitier, and more vibrant, while still remaining clean and balanced without the overpowering vinegar-like flavors sometimes found in extended fermentations. Our 72-hour natural process begins with carefully hand-picked ripe cherries grown in the mountains of Honduras. After harvesting, the cherries are sorted and floated to remove defects, ensuring only the highest-quality fruit moves forward. The coffee is then placed in controlled fermentation tanks for 72 hours, allowing the natural sugars and fruit mucilage surrounding the bean to slowly develop deeper sweetness, complexity, and fruity notes. Temperature and airflow are carefully monitored throughout the process to maintain a clean fermentation and avoid undesirable flavors. Once fermentation is complete, the cherries are slowly dried on raised beds under the sun, where they are constantly turned to ensure even drying and consistency. This slow drying process locks in the coffee’s bright fruit character, silky sweetness, and clean finish. The result is a cup bursting with tropical fruit notes, rich sweetness, and a smooth, refined profile that showcases the beauty of Honduras natural process coffee.
We’ve got a new microlot from De La Finca’s newest project farm in the Comayagua region of Honduras, so it’s direct trade straight from their hands to yours. The idea behind their expansion with this farm is to represent the little-known area of La Sampedrana. The region is perfect for coffee cultivation with its high altitude, volcanic soil and rich culture. They’re also focusing their efforts on more experimental processing of specialty lots like geisha, pink bourbon, and parainema (coming down the pipeline in future harvests) and want more quality control and consistency on a larger scale.
If the name of this coffee looks familiar, it’s because we’ve been offering DLF’s 19hour version of this coffee for a while now and it’s been a huge hit! It’s sweet, gently fruity and clean all while having great body and none of the “fermenty” flavors you can sometimes get from an anaerobic natural. In fact, for folks looking for a daily driver that’s a natural process, it’s been my go-to recommendation. It’s gentle for an anaerobic natural! But for those looking for a more intensely flavored cup, it’s just a bit too mellow.
Well let’s tack on a few more days of fermentation and crank it up a notch! With over 2 more days in the fermentation tank, this coffee tastes extremely similar to its 19hour version, just bigger. More fruit, more berry, more caramel, more chocolate. Yet somehow, it’s still very clean for such a long fermentation! In my roasts, I noted fresh raspberry, blackberry jam, melon, red currant, lime and a heapin’ spoonful of cocoa powder. If you like the 19hour version of this coffee, you’re REALLY gonna like this one. But grab it quick, De La Finca only processed a small run of this microlot so it won’t be around for long!
Reminder! This coffee is raw, you must roast it before brewing
Arrival Date: May 25, 2026. Harvest year: 2026, Packed in GrainPro
Acidity & Brightness: Fairly bright and intensely sweet
Balance & Finish: Moderately balanced with a clean finish
Body & Texture: Rich body and creamy texture
Flavors: Raspberry, blackberry, melon, red currant, lime & cocoa powder
Grade: SHG-EP, grown at 1750 masl
Certifications: Direct trade, Organic & Bird friendly
Processing: Double fermentation anaerobic natural - Cherries are first fermented in grainpro bags, then transferred to fermentation barrels, where they're anaerobically fermented for a total of 72 hours. Lastly, they're dried on raised African beds.
Grower: De La Finca Coffee | Finca la Esmeralda
Region: La Sampedrana, Comayagua, Honduras
Varietals: Caturra & Typica
Recommended Roast Range: City to Full City (Light to Medium)
We like this coffee best at City + (light-medium, at the tail end of 1st crack), but it will perform well nearly anywhere in the Light to Medium spectrum. Lighter roasts accent bright acidity and fresh fruit, while medium roasts will trade a bit of brightness for body as well as bringing out more rounded, jammy sweetness.
De La Finca Coffee - "La Esmeralda is a new DLF Project Farm in the Comayagua region. We bought this farm in 2021 in order to continue experimental processing in the area. La Sampedrama is an under-promoted area in the Comayagua region with high altitude, volcanic soil, and is rich in culture. We wanted a farm in the area where we could have more control over the quality and consistency on larger experimental specialty lots including varietals like geisha, pink bourbon, parainema which we've planted and will be coming in the next few years.”
