Producer Deep Dive: Fredy Nahun Vasquez
After tasting Fredy’s coffees we talked more with Brendan Adams, the founder of Semilla, and we heard more about Fredy’s story and his experience with coffee.
In 2021, his coffees were blended into Semilla’s regional blend from Honduras, but this year marks his first year of processing the coffee in a way that made it stand out and be worthy of an isolated micro lot. As a member of Selguapa’s community, more and more farmers have been introduced to Semilla since their relationship began in 2019. One of the core values of Semilla is investing in relationships, and having Fredy’s first international micro lot in Canada is a huge milestone for him.
Brendan said that this accomplishment enabled Fredy and his brother José, to encourage their family to focus on “resilient relationships with buyers who respect their work, and recognize the precarity smallholder growers face.” He also shared with us that Fredy is interested in cupping, and “has also taught himself to roast coffee at home so that he can cup his coffee himself and tighten the feedback loop on how each method shows in the cup.”
After Fredy’s coffees were blended into the Selguapa regional lots for Semilla back in 2021, he decided to change his fermentation methods alongside others in the Selguapa community. Brendan told us that one of Semilla’s partners, Cafe Raga, supported Fredy with education and advice regarding extended fermentations in GrainPro bags for their micro lots.
GrainPro bags are specialized bags designed for extended storage of grains. These bags allow for protection against water and humidity from the outside environment and thus are also great bags for both fermentation and exportation.
During this extended fermentation process, the naturally occurring sugars and microbes in the coffee seed are allowed to ferment longer, to allow for “much deeper and expressive fruit flavours, without sacrificing the beautiful clarity and expression of the Typica varieties,” Brendan explained. This shift in processing opened up the sparkly rosé quality, alongside the sweet Meyer lemon notes, and can sometimes result in a guava-like funkiness.