Alberto Rubio
Coffee also distills fragrances of honey, chocolate, jasmine or peach and evokes natural landscapes, such as Pico Bonito or Cerro Azul, and historical places like Copán and La Antigua. Guatemala and Honduras came together on Tuesday in Madrid, thanks to coffee, in the professional tasting organized by The Diplomat, Alma Speciality and Camden Coffee Roasters.
More than thirty Spanish professionals from the coffee sector, as well as diplomats and businessmen, met last Tuesday at the 1st Central American Coffee Tasting, featuring Guatemala and Honduras, at the Camden Coffee Roasters coffee shop at 31 Acuerdo Street.
The presentation was also attended by a large representation from the Guatemalan and Honduran embassies, headed respectively by Ambassador Mónica Bolaños and Minister Counselor Iris Ponce, since Honduran Ambassador María Dolores Agüero was unable to attend, as planned, for personal reasons.
The presence of Juan Luis Barrios, president of the world’s leading coffee association, the Speciality Coffee Association (SCA), who is also president of the Guatemalan National Coffee Association (ANACAFE), was highly valued among the professionals present. In his speech, Barrios highlighted the value, not only economic, that coffee has for the small communities of producers.
At the event, known in the sector as the ‘Brazilian cupping‘, four varieties of Central American coffees were presented for the first time in Spain. Specifically, Guatemala presented the varieties Catuai-Catimor and Cautai-Bourbones, from the farms El Pantanal and Café de Guate, from the Nuevo Oriente region.
For their part, Honduran coffee growers were represented by Hernán Alvarado, from Copan Exportadores (Copanex), a family business that since 2014, as he explained, “has managed to promote the export of its small producers”. Copanex presented two varieties of coffee, specifically from the departments of Lempira and Ocotepeque, which obtained excellent ratings from the tasters, as did the Guatemalan coffees mentioned above.
For Central American producers, “being present at this tasting is an important step to continue the trajectory we are seeking in Spain“, according to Guaterroir’s Director of Markets, Guillermo Rodriguez, represented in Madrid by the company’s International Specialist, Maricarmen Fuentes.
After the tasting, Camdem Coffee Roasters offered an agape to the guests, prepared by its chef Javier Roca, in which the Pagos de Araiz Winery (Olite, Navarra), belonging to the Masaveu Bodegas wine group, offered one of its most awarded wines, the Pagos de Araiz Crianza 2018, while the Villa de Madrid Brewery group did the same with a selection of varieties of its new craft beer, La Chula.
The Diplomat, Alma Speciality and Camden Coffee Roasters are already preparing the next specialty coffee tasting. The aim of these meetings is to bring to Spain coffee varieties that, despite their excellent quality, still find it very difficult to access the European market.
