Introducing El Liquidambo

We’re eager for you to start the year right with El Liquidambo, a spectacular award-winning Honduran coffee roasted by Colonna in Bath, United Kingdom.

Grown in a temperate valley of pine and oak forests, El Liquidambo won over hundreds of other competitors in a blind tasting, and a 41-member jury awarded the coffee the coveted Honduran Cup of Excellence for its round, juicy sweetness.

El Liquidambo was produced by Guadalupe Rodriguez and his family in the village of Pozo Negro in western Honduras. Everyone, including his adult children and their families, participated in the harvesting, production, and processing of the coffee. This is the second time in two years Rodriguez has entered and won the Cup of Excellence after a lifetime dedicated to growing coffee.

Beyond its exquisite taste, El Liquidambo is notable as the crown of the Lempira varietal. A sub-variety of Catimor native to Honduras, Lempira was originally developed to be high yielding and disease resistant. Such hardy varieties tend to be of poor quality, but this coffee has transcended its stereotype to score a stunning 88 points at the Cup of Excellence.

El Liquidambo was roasted by Colonna, the brainchild of three-time UK barista champion Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood. Known for his innovative research and pioneering efforts in specialty coffee, Maxwell has probed into water composition and its effects on solubility and taste (he co-authored the book Water for Coffee with the chemist Christopher Hendon) and most recently, he launched a line of Nespresso-compatible specialty coffee capsules (soon to be available at Collected). El Liquidambo, a lot from his roastery’s top-tier line, represents the rarest, finest, and most sought after in coffee. At Collected, we’re pleased to bring you a taste of this first.

When we chose El Liquidambo, we wanted something that would capture the joy of a new year. Something spectacular but also comforting, that we could return to, over and over again. All of this is immediately perceptible in El Liquidambo. Upon first taste, hints of warm, caramelized apples come through; as the coffee rests on the palate, caramel and toffee notes intensify, forming the backbone of the coffee.

El Liquidambo’s hallmark is a deep, complex sweetness. This sweetness, tempered by the malic acidity of golden kiwis and the slight savoriness of almond brittle, lingers as the coffee finishes. And with a mouthfeel as smooth as velvet, this is a coffee we could drink all year long.

We chose the Wave as a brew method to maintain El Liquidambo’s balance of body, sweetness, and acidity. If you would like to further amplify the coffee’s sweetness, simply increase your coffee to water brew ratio to 17:1 with a finer grind.