LAS MANOS, HONDURAS

More than once, Santos Alexis Dominguez has transformed familial strife into a renewed sense of purpose, with the harvests from her small farm among the best in Central America.

 In the mountains above Lake Yojoa, among the Cielito community of the Santa Barbara Department of Honduras, lay Santos Alexis Domínguez’s hike-in-only farm, Las Manos.

Here, at around 1550 MASL, she grows predominantly Pacas and a small amount of Typica variety coffee trees. On her small farm, cherries are de-pulped in small batches before undergoing fermentation in a single tile-lined tank.

Over the years, Alexi has reinvested heavily into her farm, overcoming many obstacles thrown in the farm’s path. Several years ago, after her drying beds tragically burnt down, she worked with Ritual to create a new, covered drying system that has since been working perfectly. Additionally, she saved the profits from previous harvests to do major replanting, with the literal fruits of this project first appearing in this year’s lot.

As the new coffees mature and develop, we excitedly wait for each new harvest to taste some of the best coffees produced in Honduras, which is really saying something!