Honduras promotes top-quality coffee to the world

By Grace Soong

China Post

November 27, 2011

The China Post--For the first time in history, coffee beans native to Honduras are packaged in Taiwanese creativity, and together the two nations will challenge the international coffee market, as announced at the beverage exhibition in the Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC), yesterday.

Set up in the center of the TWTC Hall 1 is a special Central America coffee-themed booth, where the five major Central American coffee producers — El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama — demonstrate their ambition to promote their native flavors to the world.

Especially unique to this year's Taipei Tea, Coffee, and Alcohol Exhibition (2011台北茗茶˙咖啡暨美酒展) is the newly revealed flavorful cooperation between Taiwan and Honduras: the best coffee beans from six regions of Honduras are packed in Taiwan-designed packages, and will be available in five major airports in Honduras.

“Our coffee beans are of highest value in the region,” Vice President of Honduras Samuel Reyes Rendon, who is visiting Taiwan on the mission to introduce the country's coffee to the world, said yesterday. Honduras is the largest coffee exporter of Central America, and is among the major suppliers of coffee to the Taiwanese market, with Honduran coffee beans frequently serving as a popular option for coffee blends due to their balanced flavor.

As the global coffee market grows and coffee drinkers' palates evolve, however, Honduras believes that its time for its coffee to go solo.

After repeated cupping and testing, six different kinds of coffee beans native to Copan, Opalaca, Montecillos, Comayagua, Agalta, and El Paraiso of Honduras have been chosen and shipped to Taiwan for creative packaging.

“Each type of coffee bean has its own quality, taste, aroma, and texture,” the vice president pointed out, “and these specialties are now available to all in one compact package.”

Taiwan and Honduras' cooperation on this coffee project has strengthened the two nations' 70-year-long brotherhood, Charge d' Affairs of the Embassy of Honduras Alejandro Young Portillo said, remarking, “Together we open doors to the world.”