New Release | Honduras Omar Rodriguez Jr. & Honduras Pedro Romero
The local coffee farming cooperative in the town of Capucas, Cooperativa Cafetalera Capucas Limitada, known as COCAFCAL, is located near a mountain top in the Copán region of Honduras. The entire Capucas area is truly a coffee community - from the lifestyle to its financial dependence on coffee production. Having just visited our partner producers in Honduras this past February, we are thrilled that operations are looking dialed! Not only are our microlots tasting delicious, but the macrolots we source from Capucas are also top-notch! If you’ve been liking our Isabelle or OZO Blends, you’ve been enjoying Capucas coffees for years!
Omar Rodriguez Jr. is the president of COCAFCAL and an incredible producer, following in the footsteps of his father whom we worked with prior to the passing-of-the-torch. As the president, Omar Jr.’s job encompasses much more than just managing the coop’s green coffee. Coop member benefits include access to mills, a cafeteria, cafe, cupping lab, coffee tree nursery, computer lab, solar drying complex, conference center, fishing ponds, and fruits and vegetables grown around Capucas. Omar ensures facilities are operational and that producers and staff are happy. In total this includes more than 375 members working to create 245 shipping containers worth of coffee (that’s over 10 million pounds)!
In addition to being a community leader, Omar Jr. is a quality focused coffee producer. OZO is proud to continue to highlight his washed microlot this year. Processed at the COCAFCAL facilities, this coffee is nutty, has a citric acidity, and a touch of vanilla-like sweetness. It is easy drinking and perfectly balanced.
Pedro Romero lives a short six-minute drive from COCAFCAL. Winding through the forested land, arriving at his property is almost romantic with how the light filters through the shade and coffee trees. On a personal level, his home and farm are stunning. Filled to the brim with flowers and tropical plants, Pedro walked us through his property to show off his new anaerobic barrels for coffee fermentation, pristine covered drying beds, and his honeybees. Pedro is a producer who values environmental sustainability in regard to preservation and lowering carbon emissions. Throughout his hectares of farmland are beautifully mature shade trees which, although he could sell for lumber, he keeps to preserve the land in its natural shape.
This year’s Pedro microlot is a washed process coffee that tastes like a perfect fall day. Notes of chocolate and caramel are balanced with malic acidity to bring together a delightfully simple cup of coffee. Both of these producers are pillars of COCAFCAL. The coop was founded in 1999 and gained its Fair Trade Organic certification in 2009. In 2014, during OZO’s early roasting years, we booked 50 bags of their FTO Macro blender. This blend of Omar Jr. and Pedro coffee is customized for OZO. Since the inception of this partnership, both parties have gained success and growth. We are proud to say that in 2023, OZO purchased three containers of coffee from Capucas - a 1650% increase since we first worked together! This type of long-term partnership is what we strive to cultivate and nourish at OZO Coffee.