Coffee tree pollination and coffee blossom honey: A cozy relationship
By Perry Luckett, CoffeeMan1
Among the other amazing things you may have learned about bees, did you know they play a vital role in coffee production? Scientific literature on the benefits of bee pollination for coffee is convincing. Although coffee plants are self-pollinating, bee pollination enhances yield quantity and quality. Coffee plants in given areas bloom together and over a short time, but berries ripen at different times, so repetitive hand harvesting is typical. Managing pollination
would improve yields in quantity and quality
may help fruit to set at the same time, thus reducing harvesting and sorting costs. [OCL]
Although coffee itself provides few nesting sites and food for bees, bee diversity and abundance depend on the presence of trees inside or around the coffee farm. This fact adds to the benefit of shade-grown coffee. Forest surrounding a coffee farm can help increase yields 20 percent. In countries such as Guatemala and Mexico, shade-grown coffee and diverse, rustic farms next to forests are common. There, coffee ecosystems host double the number of bees and a 20 percent higher growth of coffee fruit, compared to specialized shade and sun-grown coffee common in Brazil and Costa Rica. [DCN2]
Bee pollination has significant value to the coffee market in Guatemala
In the highlands of the Huehuetenango region of Guatemala, Jorge Mendez, and many other coffee farmers have long relied on bees to pollinate their coffee flowers. In this region of the world farmers rely on their coffee harvest to provide for their families over the entire year. Using bees in coffee growing has been a crucial step in helping the buds set and allows for the coffee tree to blossom. Each blossom represents a coffee cherry that is vital to coffee farmers. They position their hives within the coffee plantations so bees will have continual access to the coffee blossom nectar. Because the terrain is so remote and steep, the farmers must then use mobile extraction to retrieve the honey. [CBH]
When Mr. Mendez noticed the number of bees on his farm had begun to dwindle, he took up beekeeping to ensure his coffee flowers would continue to be pollinated. Agriculturally, this venture turned out to be an incredible success for Jorge and the farming community as yearly fruit yields, plant health, and uniformity of harvest began to increase. This amazing symbiotic relationship between farmers and bees continues in the Huehuetenango region today. [PC]
Beekeeping and coffee blossom honey also are valuable to Mexico’s coffee trade
For example, a group called Food 4 Farmers is working with the CESMACH coffee cooperative in Chiapas, Mexico, to diversify and improve livelihoods through commercial beekeeping. This effort can inform farming practices in other key coffee-growing regions. Chiapas is by far the most prominent coffee-producing state in Mexico, accounting for 43 percent of the country’s annual production of 824,000 tons, and representing a value of $90.4 million. [DCN2]
El Colegio de la Frontera Sur (Ecosur), a leading research center in Chiapas, hosts a Bee Team working both on diversity of bees and its effect on coffee pollination. It also supports small beekeepers’ honey production by analyzing and describing “coffee garden honey.”
Chiapas offers fertile ground for improving knowledge of pollinators’ effects on coffee because most coffee is grown under highly diverse shade. This is particularly true in the El Triunfo area, part of the Sierra Madre region. It contrasts with the Altos region, where coffee is secondary to pasturelands and shade comes from a limited variety of planted trees.
The better coffee growers understand the relationship between coffee management and bee diversity and abundance, the more they can improve livelihoods and landscapes. The ultimate goal is to equip farmers to enhance coffee production’s stability and reliability by using shade trees that can better support diverse pollinators.
Food 4 Farmers is raising money for research in Chiapas with Ecosur, colleagues from the University of Vermont’s Gund Institute, and CESMACH. This research will focus on the interrelationship between bees and coffee. Their underlying belief is that better livelihoods and better coffee can go hand-in-hand, providing food security for families and a more sustainable supply of high-quality coffee.
Given a 10-20 percent “pollination effect” on coffee, bees’ service in coffee agroecosystems could be worth $9 to $18 million in Chiapas alone, $22 to $44 million in Mexico, and $180 to $360 million worldwide. And this doesn’t account for their role in pollinating other crops that contribute to food security and livelihoods for smallholder farmers. [DCN2]
Coffee blossom honey is the sweet bonus from bee pollination and is growing in popularity
Although a fair amount of coffee blossom honey is made around the world in Asia, South America and Africa, much of the reliable, high-quality supply comes from Guatemalan farms. Similar to the coffee grown in this part of the world, the honey tastes delicate and smells distinctly floral, with notes of lavender and jasmine up front, and an undertone of cinnamon. This thick, golden honey is 100% raw, unfiltered and unpasteurized. [PC]
Just as with coffee, equipment and processes make all the difference. Coffee blossom honey is one of the most regulated honeys in Guatemala. To be considered honey from coffee pollen, the apiaries must be within 1 kilometer (0.62 miles) of the main nectar source, and harvest must be right after the blossoms fall.
Three Guatemalan coffee producers in particular offer top-class coffee and coffee blossom honey to the world:
Jorge Mendez, Onyx Coffee, and Finca El Apiario (“Honeybee Farm”): A super cozy relationship
As Rachel Morrison points out in Fresh Cup Magazine, Jorge Mendez is the original single-origin producer of Coffee Blossom Honey from the legendary farm Finca El Apiario (“Honeybee Farm”). El Apiario honey has a well-balanced body with brown sugar and vanilla aromas. Flavors of peach, chamomile, caramel, and orange finish with delicate lavender notes. [CBH] It sells in twelve-ounce jars, and can be seen on the shelves of roaster-retailers around the country.
It’s an exciting time for what we’re doing with honey,” Edwin Martinez, CEO of Onyx Coffee says. Martinez is the founder of Coffee Blossom Honey, the first fully traceable micro-lot, farm-direct, raw coffee flower honey. Martinez explains that the timing is right for products with a transparent supply chain. As consumers better understand how products are processed and how they affect the ecosystems of where they’re produced, they become more aware in their buying behaviors. [FCM]
Although Coffee Blossom Honey has found a fitting home in the specialty coffee community, it was a long road to get the product on roasters’ shelves:
The project started during lunch on a neighboring coffee farm in Huehuetenango, Guatemala. Martinez and his neighbors (a farm twenty to thirty kilometers away) were hosting coffee roasters from the United States, and served coffee flower honey as a dessert. The honey’s stellar quality was apparent, and ignited conversation around the logistics of importing the honey to US consumers.
Martinez bought one barrel from Finca El Apiario, the farm of neighbor Jorge Mendez, but was unable to export it. At the time, there were fewer than twenty honey exporters in Guatemala and it was difficult to get export approval. He returned the paid-for barrel of honey to Mendez and started laying groundwork to launch Coffee Blossom Honey.
Martinez began sharing the honey with his friends and colleagues in the roasting business (checking suitcases full of honey on trips back to the United States), and inviting them to visit the farms where the honey was being produced. The response was overwhelmingly positive.
Onyx Coffee tried to export and import one harvest of honey into the United States, and the Coffee Blossom Honey brand was born. In the United States, Coffee Blossom Honey is capitalizing on Onyx’s relationships with roasters and other green coffee buyers for wholesale honey offerings in jars, as well as half-gallon or five-gallon buckets.
Now, Martinez and his team have a reliable path from the farms where bees are kept to the United States. “We’re working in the context of what we’re already doing,” he says. They’ve intentionally focused attention on their roasting partners, keeping a tight circle within the roasting community and highlighting the honey’s coffee connection. [DCN1] “We are the first that I’m aware of to introduce honey that is predominantly from coffee flowers, available to North American roasters, that is traceable at this level from a small producer, tracked by lot,” Martinez said. [FCM]
Letty and Lorena Anzueto: the Finca Isnul coffee farm
The Anzuetos represent a growing number of female producers in Guatemala who are farming and producing world-class specialty coffee to share with the world. Letty and Lorena are leaders in the acclaimed Huehuetenango coffee growing region. Their beautiful farm, Finca Isnul, was founded in 1977 and is legendary in the area for their focus on quality and innovation. Doña Letty, who cares deeply about the environment, preserves 10 hectares of natural forest. Because they understand the cozy relationship between bee pollination of coffee flowers and enhanced harvests, the sisters are also beekeepers and producers of small-batch honey.
As the second generation of coffee producers, Letty and Lorena are proud to produce extraordinary coffees and to protect a selection of wonderful, lush forest on the Los Cuchumatanes Mountain. Danny Perez, the farm manager and Letty’s son, says about Finca Isnul: “This farm had belonged to our mother’s family since 1940 and my grandfather since 1969. It was a small farm, but with hard work and loans, it became one of the biggest farms in the region with 160 hectares. Unfortunately, our grandfather passed away in March of 2015. Now his two daughters, Leticia (my mother) and Lorena (my aunt) Anzueto Sandoval are the new owners of the farm.” [CBH]
The family is working their farm with the help of fifth-generation coffee growers. Starting the process from the ground up, they’re now processing, milling, cupping and exporting the finest Guatemalan coffees directly to the best roasters in the world. They take a similar painstaking approach to bee-keeping and honey production, with a product that has a distinctive clarity and taste. It has a velvety body with a ripe peach aroma complemented by notes of tropical fruits, apricot, orange blossom, and ripe pear. [CBH]
Otto and Octavio Herrera: the Finca La Esperanza coffee farm
Finca La Esperanza was founded over half a century ago by Octavio Herrera. Senior—usually known as Otto. Otto Herrera is a third-generation coffee producer and has more than 50 years of experience growing specialty coffee. He managed nearly every part of the farm’s operation for decades, but he is now semi-retired and watches over the three generations of his family who contribute to the farm’s daily operations. Otto’s son Octavio has taken over and begun recultivating a formerly abandoned lot, Las Piedras, to extend the farm’s coffee-production legacy into the fourth generation.
Conditions at La Esperanza are perfect for coffee cultivation. Receiving 47-55 inches of rainfall annually and protection from frost due to the dry and hot winds from the nearby Tehuantepec plain in Mexico. This region also has many stream and rivers, which allow the farm to have its own wet mill (for processing beans).
La Esperanza Coffee Blossom Honey is an extension of the Herrera family’s legacy of quality and innovation. La Esperanza offers a complex, crystallized profile with a wild floral and citrusy aroma. Bursting flavors of red apple, kiwi and jasmine greet your first taste, followed by warm cinnamon and sweet lemonade finish. [CBH]
Those of us who enjoy fine coffee and delectable honey are happy to know such dedication exists among the producers in Central America. Thanks to their continuity and care, we’re likely to see both quality products on roasters’ shelves in the United States for many generations to come.
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Thanks, and see you next time with something about tea.
Resources:
Nick Brown, Editor. “Coffee Blossom Honey: A Sweet Extension of the Farmer to Importer Relationship,” Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine, February 15, 2017 http://bit.ly/35EQ9Xb [DCN1]
Coffee Blossom Honey (the company), “Our Partners” and “The Producer Series.” http://bit.ly/34xIhW0 [CBH]
Janice Nadworny and Rémy Vandame, “Making the Case for Better Coffee through Bees,” Daily Coffee News by Roast Magazine, April 12, 2018. http://bit.ly/2r9YDq5 [DCN2]
Onyx Coffee Lab, “Terroir Coffee Blossom Honey.” http://bit.ly/2SaC2F8 [OCL]
Prima Coffee, “Coffee Blossom Honey.” http://bit.ly/38XLiSY [PC]
Rachel Sandstrom Morrison, Associate Editor, Fresh Cup Magazine, Coffee Blossom Honey, March 31, 2017. http://bit.ly/34Hewlw [FCM]