Celia Portillo's Washed Bourbon | Honduras
Description
Washed Bourbon¹
La Pacaya Farm, Pichingo, Comayagua, Honduras²
Celia Portillo manages a small 4-hectare farm high in Honduras' Comayagua Mountain Range called La Pacaya where she grows Bourbon and Typica varieties. The altitude, combined with Celia’s passion for coffee, creates a sweet, smooth-bodied cup filled with notes of sweet mandarin, raisin and light florals.
Until recently, producers in this region delivered their coffee in cherry to the nearby town to be sold for whatever price the local buyers would offer. This is the least risky and quickest way to be paid for coffee, but it is also the least profitable and most prone to exploitation as buyers set prices on a whim, leaving producers to take whatever they can get that day.
When told of the opportunity to change from the prevailing model, Celia was willing to begin transitioning away from the model she and her family have done for generations to process her coffee to parchment. With the assistance of Jesus 'Chungo' Galeas, Celia and fellow local producers have been working towards a more autonomous form of production in which they harvest, process, and dry their coffees so they can be sold to long-term committed buyers like P.S. Coffee.
¹ Processing & Varietal
² Region of Origin
We Support
This
Working with and purchasing directly from coffee growing communities so more profits go into the hands of coffee producers.
Not That
FAQ's
WHO MAKES P.S. COFFEE?
The P.S. Coffee menu is made possible by grower communities and smallholder farmers in Rwanda, Honduras, Colombia and Guatemala. Through our sourcing sister-company Semilla, we hold long-term and consensus based partnerships with producers that have had zero or limited access to or knowledge of the specialty market.
These skilled and passionate professionals are redefining coffee production within their growing regions that have historically been underserved and overlooked despite being within well-respected coffee producing countries. Through community support networks, access to knowledge and capital and investment into physical and intellectual infrastracture, they are transitioning towards autonomy and away from the exploitative model they’ve mostly always known.
These are the people and communities you’ll meet through P.S. — and build connections with as we continue to support and purchase from them year after year.
Meet the P.S. Producer Network
HOW IS P.S. COFFEE SOURCED?
All of the coffee on the P.S. menu is exclusively sourced with Semilla Coffee through the following principles:
Durable Relationships
All of Semilla’s relationships are formed with specific communities in underserved coffee growing regions within well-respected coffee production countries. Semilla identifies producer groups that have zero or limited access to or knowledge of the specialty market and takes on the requisite risk that comes with their transition into becoming specialty coffee producers with dedicated buyers across North America. Semilla’s commitment is to work only within the bounds of these groups, seeking to grow with them in pursuit of purchasing all of their production, year after year.
Best Prices, Defined by Producers
All coffees purchased by Semilla are purchased at the best locally available price. This is determined via communication with and understanding of local market dynamics, and prices are arrived upon via a consensus model in which the coffee growers and Semilla agree democratically on the best prices for all involved.
Traceability and Transparency
Semilla’s commitment is to work with complete commitment to traceability and transparency along the value chain. This means full transparency of prices paid to the farmer (farmgate) as well as prices paid at port (FOB). Additionally, Semilla offers in depth information and context for each coffee, the producers who grew it, and the condition within which they work with each purchase.
Quality
Semilla exclusively works in the specialty coffee realm, meaning all of the coffees purchase are above the quality levels offered by conventional commodity or Fair Trade and Organic buyers. Quality is determined in reference to the Specialty Coffee Association and Coffee Quality Institute’s grading standards, with all coffees source for P.S. achieving a minimum of 85 points out of a possible 100.
DO YOU HAVE THIRD-PARTY SUSTAINABILITY CERTIFICATION?
We are skeptic of most fair trade/organic/sustainability certifications. They often leave the financial burden on coffee producers who are, and let's be honest, not polluting anywhere near us folks in the Global North are.
Instead of focusing on these certification, we work towards a value system that uplifts everyone along the coffee supply chain. Through Semilla, our sourcing sister-company, we can connect directly with our coffee producer network to bring to life their ideas that come from, and work for, them towards a more sustainable, equitable value chain.