Matriarch Series - Honduras, Grupo Femenino
ORIGINALLY RELEASED
March 2023
HIGHLIGHTS
Matriarch Series: Showcases coffee produced by women
Origin: Honduras - Marcala, La Paz
Smallholder Cooperative (co-op): Grupo Femenino - La Unión de Marcala
WHAT YOU CAN EXPECT
Notes of green apple with light caramel sweetness. For less sensitive palates, this is a mellow coffee with a clean finish. No surprises, no fruit bombs. Just something smooth and tasty for everyday drinking!
ORIGIN STORY
Our MATRIARCH SERIES highlights coffees produced by women, and this one’s traceable to 30 amazing women from Honduras. Starting in the 1800s, Honduras made a name for itself in the banana trade; at its peak, nearly 90% of exports from Honduras were bananas! However, over the last few decades banana production has unfortunately declined due to environmental factors. On the flip side, Honduras’ decline in banana production opened up an opportunity for the growth and improvement of coffee production.
Today, Honduras is the largest coffee producer in Central America (!) and over 30% of Honduran coffee exports are classified as specialty. This certified Fair Trade Organic (FTO) specialty coffee comes from the southwest town of Marcala in La Paz, a region known for its high mountain ranges and optimal coffee growing conditions.
Marcala-based smallholder co-op La Unión has 136 members, all of whom are part of the indigenous Lenca community. Within La Unión is Grupo Femenino, the all-female group responsible for producing this coffee. These ~30 women not only work together to produce specialty coffee, they are also committed to improving financial outcomes for their members. Acting as their own microfinance group, the women pool their wages each month to make small-scale loans. These loans allow them to more sustainably fund group operations such as pre-crop financing, lot separation, and the distribution of post-harvest premiums. It’s a model that sets Grupo Femenino up for scale and lowers the barriers to entry for other female community members hoping to enter specialty coffee.
In short, this is a community-driven coffee that showcases the magic that occurs when you put a group of badass women together to produce coffee. Spoiler alert: It’s delicious.
MORE ABOUT THE MATRIARCH SERIES
Our Matriarch Series exclusively highlights coffee from female producers worldwide. Women play a major role in coffee production, often performing the hardest and most critical manual labor, while juggling their responsibilities of managing the household. These superwomen not only rarely get the spotlight, they also lack the same access to capital and resources as their male counterparts. Our intent with this series is to not only celebrate the amazing women in the coffee supply chain, but also to ensure they are paid a premium for their hard work and to work directly with organizations that have committed to improving equity for women in the coffee value chain wherever possible.
