Benjamin Paz SL28 | Honduras

SL28 is a variety we usually associate with Kenya: bright acidity, vivid fruit and the unmistakable structure found in some of the country’s best coffees. Its story, however, stretches further. Selected in Kenya during the 1930s from coffee originating in Tanzania, SL28 has since travelled well beyond East Africa. Over the past decade, it has found its way into Latin America, where a small number of producers are exploring how these celebrated genetics respond to entirely different environments. Benjamin Paz is one of the key figures in specialty coffee in Santa Bárbara. Alongside producing coffee at Finca La Salsa, he has spent years connecting high-quality producers from the region with specialty coffee buyers around the world. La Salsa sits high in the mountains around Lake Yojoa, where a cooler, misty microclimate slows cherry maturation and helps build sweetness and complexity. Here, Benjamin grows varieties including Geisha and SL28. The genetics remain the same, but the soil, climate and growing conditions are entirely different from those of Kenya. We first met Benjamin in 2014, and he has since become one of the most important relationships in our Producer Series. His work extends beyond his own farm, helping producers throughout Santa Bárbara improve quality, refine processing and connect with specialty coffee buyers. That contrast is exactly why we bought this coffee. It offers a chance to taste something familiar through another lens: the distinctive character of SL28, interpreted through Honduras, the highlands around Lake Yojoa and one of the producers we have worked with for more than a decade.