Jocsan Otoniel – Honduras

“Jocsan remembers that when he was young, he used to work with his father transporting coffee. His father wasn’t very passionate about growing coffee, and when Jocsan was fourteen years old, he recalls that they would only harvest 500lbs of cherry from their farm, which they later sold. Later, his father found a different job that took him away from coffee.

When Jocsan was eighteen years old, his father passed away, leaving him with the responsibility of supporting his family. He had to rethink everything and focus on coffee as a means of livelihood for this great responsibility. Together with his brother, they started improving the farm’s management, which led to better production, still selling the coffee as cherry. Help arrived in the municipality of Santa Ana, where an organization formed several producers into a group so they could process the coffee as parchment. This was the moment when Jocsan fell in love with the world of coffee.

Jocsan’s grandparents also had a coffee farm two hours away from Santa Ana and with limited involvement so Jocsan feels like he is the first generation in coffee. Jocsan continued his studies and became a primary school teacher. He strongly supported his brother in his studies and his brother received a scholarship to an agricultural university in Honduras.

Jocsan and his brother enjoy experimenting with coffee processes to find out which ones yield the best flavour profiles. They have conducted anaerobic experiments, controlled fermentation, pulp removal without water, and more. With each harvest they continue to conduct more experiments.

Currently, Jocsan is being trained in cupping and aims to obtain the five-star taster certification awarded by IHCAFE of Honduras. Together with his brother, they intend to fulfill their dreams of expanding into more international markets and creating more job opportunities for people in their area.”