Honduras: La Alondra - March Pickings

Expect a super creamy milk chocolate hit here. A little shoulder of sultana gives way to a gentle peach and raspberry note on the aftertaste, but this one's all about that milk chocolate.

This coffee comes from La Alondra, a family farm in the misty highlands of Lepaterique, Honduras – and we've managed to source something a bit special from them this year. We've got three lots from the same trees, same varietals, same washed processing, but picked a month apart. These are the March pickings – we've also released January (all chocolate orange with a dried fruit sweetness) and February (sticky toffee pudding richness with creamy caramel and hazelnut) this year, so you can follow the harvest and taste the difference for yourself.

March cherries had the longest time on the tree of all three lots. They're the slow-maturers, still developing as the season winds down – and at La Alondra's 1,700 metres, dropping night temperatures towards the end of harvest slow sugar development, building a softer, more integrated sweetness rather than the bold, punchy character of earlier pickings. The washed processing strips everything back too, removing the fruit before drying so there's nothing extra layered on top. What you're tasting is purely the cherry itself – and with these late-season, slow-built March cherries, that means deep, clean milk chocolate front and centre, with the dried fruit edge of January and the toffee intensity of February quietly left behind.

The story of how we came to work with La Alondra is one of Roland's favourites. Alejandro Girón reached out to our Green Buyer Roland during Covid for a thesis interview about coffee sourcing – and happened to mention his family had a farm. Roland asked to taste it. The coffee was great, but sourcing it was another matter, until a chance lunch at our Emma Street eatery brought Roland together with Benjamín Paz Muñoz, who exports La Alondra's coffee. A few weeks later at London Coffee Festival, Alejandro mentioned his exporter was someone called Benjamín. Roland's eyes lit up. Coffee really is all about relationships.

La Alondra belongs to José Hernán Girón, now run by his son Miguel with his three brothers. At 1,700 metres in the misty highlands of Lepaterique, the farm is heavily forested with native trees – all that shade means the coffee plants grow unusually tall, even the Villa Sarchi, which is considered a dwarf varietal. The farm is mostly planted with Villa Sarchi and Caturra, with smaller amounts of Bourbon, Catuai, and Maracaturra, processed at a wet mill on site before heading to Beneficio San Vincente for dry milling and export.

We keep these pickings separate rather than blending them together – which takes extra effort at every stage, from the Girón family tracking each picking through to us cupping them individually. Most farms don't bother. But it gives you the chance to taste something that usually gets blended away: how much the harvest timing alone shapes what's in your cup.

• Country: Honduras
• Department: Francisco Morazán
• Municipality: Lepaterique
• Village: Piedra Rayada
• Producer: The Girón Family
• Mill: Beneficio San Vincente - Pena Blanca
• Farm: La Alondra
• Elevation: 1700 m.a.s.l
• Varietals: Catuai, Caturra, Villa Sarchi
• Processing method: Washed
• Harvest: March 2025 

Medium Dark

This is a medium-dark roast with a steady, unhurried approach. Our roasters take it smoothly through first crack and the gap that follows, finishing right as the first pops of second crack arrive. That controlled development helps build the creamy body and rich milk chocolate notes this coffee delivers, while stopping short of anything too heavy or roasty.

Tasting Notes: Milk chocolate, cream, sultana, peach, raspberry.

Cup of Excellence Cupping Scores

• Clean cup: 6/8
• Sweetness: 6.5/8
• Acidity: 6/8
• Mouthfeel: 6.5/8
• Flavour: 6.5/8
• Aftertaste: 6/8
• Balance: 6.5/8
• Overall: 6/8
• Correction: +36
• Total: 86/100

If you would like to find out more about how we score coffees, make sure to read our blog post "What Do Coffee Cuppings Scores Actually Mean?" by clicking here.

Our coffee is roasted fresh and ships quickly – which means it might arrive a little lively. Here's the thing: freshly roasted beans are still busy releasing carbon dioxide (a natural byproduct of roasting), and all that activity can make your brew taste a bit sharp or unsettled.

Give it a few days to calm down and something lovely happens. Those brighter, edgier notes mellow out, sweetness develops, and the flavours you're actually after can really come into focus.

We recommend resting your coffee for at least 5-7 days from the roast date on the bag before brewing. A little patience goes a long way.

That said, this is just what we've found works best – not a rule. If you can't wait, we completely understand. Tuck in whenever you like.