Sagastume Family

  • Farm

    Los Potreros, El Pozo, Los Quetzales

  • Country

    Honduras

  • Region

    Santa Barbara - El Sauce

  • Elevation

    1600 - 1700 masl

  • Varieties

    Parainema, Geisha, Pacas

  • Crop

    January - June

  • Cooperation

    Since 2016

Esmelin Sagastume

For more than a century, the Sagastume family has been tending coffee trees in the mountains of Santa Barbara and belongs among the producers who define this region’s reputation in the world of specialty coffee

Sagastume family
Sagastume family
Sagastume family
Sagastume family
Sagastume family
Sagastume family
Sagastume family
Sagastume family
Sagastume family

The Farm

The Sagastume family stands behind some of our most distinctive Honduran coffees. Their connection to coffee in Santa Barbara goes back more than a hundred years. In 1908, Pedro Sagastume’s father acquired almost 80 hectares of state land near the village of El Zapote. After his death, the land had to be divided between Pedro and his nine siblings.

Thanks to his determination, hard work and smart decisions, Pedro gradually managed to expand his share again. Together with the San Vicente mill and the Paz family he carved out a strong place on the specialty coffee market. To this day he is the head of the family and a respected patriarch. As he has grown older, he has started dividing the family land among his sons Jelcin, Jerin and Heyvis and his daughter Bersi.

We first met Pedro in 2016 when we visited his farm Los Quetzales. Our buying relationship actually started with his daughter, Bersi Sagastume, who married another coffee producer, Edwin Pineda. Coffee from their farm El Pozo has been part of our line-up almost continuously for nearly ten years.

Because the harvest from El Pozo was very small in some years – and because Edwin decided for a time to leave Honduras and work in the United States – we expanded our collaboration to another branch of the family: Pedro’s cousin, Esmelin Sagastume.

Producer - Esmelin Sagastume

Although Esmelin comes from a coffee family, he is a relative newcomer as a coffee farmer himself. After seventeen years working in a bank, he had the opportunity to buy a three-hectare plot from his grandfather. The following year he planted half of the farm – which he named Los Potreros – with the parainema variety.

Parainema is a hybrid variety developed in Honduras. It is resistant to coffee leaf rust, yet offers excellent flavour potential and has even won the prestigious Cup of Excellence competition. On the remaining part of the farm, Esmelin planted the legendary geisha.

His cousin Don Pedro, together with exporter Benjamin Paz, supports him with key agronomic decisions and processing choices. Most of the processing takes place at the family mill. Every year we are excited by the unique flavour profiles of both varieties – parainema and geisha – that we cup from Esmelin’s lots.

Producer - Bersi Sagastume and Edwin Pineda

The name of the farm El Pozo literally means “the hole”. It fits perfectly: in the middle of this very small 0.35 ha farm there is a huge sinkhole with a cave. The farm sits at an elevation of around 1,800 metres above sea level and looks out over stunning views of Lake Yojoa.

Low night-time temperatures and high humidity make consistency and quality of drying especially challenging. Edwin and Bersi have some of the most beautiful African raised beds we have seen on any farm (see photos). A recent improvement is full shading of the drying area, which significantly extends the drying time. Shade is absolutely crucial here – coffee that dries too quickly under intense sun tends to age faster and lose its clarity in the cup.

Coffee Processing

Most of our Honduran coffees from the Sagastume family are processed either as washed or honey lots and dried in parabolic dryers or on shaded African raised beds. Final processing is handled by the San Vicente mill, owned by the family of Benjamin Paz.

Benjamin works closely with hundreds of farmers in the Santa Barbara region and helps them turn the potential of this area into top-tier specialty coffees. He connects small family farms with roasters around the world who share the same philosophy of quality and long-term relationships. Benjamin is also a successful farmer himself – in 2022 and 2024 he won first place in the Cup of Excellence with his geisha.

Fun Fact

You probably wouldn't expect to find coffee producers deep in the mountains of Honduras with first or middle names like Yeltsin, Stalin, or Lenin (Edwina's middle name). At first, we were a bit surprised. It wasn't until we started researching this strange phenomenon that it turned out to be a fairly common practice in Central and South America. Even the former president of Ecuador was named Lenin...

Enjoy with

Farm • Sagastume

Honduras
380 Kč
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