Hidardo Hernández
CAFESMO — Honduras
Hidardo Hernández is the founder of the CAFESMO Ocotepeque cooperative and a fourth-generation coffee farmer. Coffee has been part of his life since childhood. Together with his mother Delmy Hernández, he runs Finca Cascaritas, where he grows different coffee varieties as carefully crafted microlots.
His work is rooted in ecological and sustainable farming practices. Quality, transparency, and continuous improvement guide everything he does.
CAFESMO
CAFESMO is a cooperative that was initiated in 2016. Today, it has over 280 members who run relatively small farms that range roughly from 2 to 12 hectares in size. All fincas in the cooperative are fair trade and organic certified.
The farms are located around the town of Mercedes in the south of Honduras, surrounded by the highest peaks of the country and straddling the border to El Salvador. The mountains create highly beneficial micro-climates, as well as a diverse fauna and flora with plentiful natural shade.
CAFESMO’s members are a diverse group: there are young people as well as less young members, women and men, and people from all sorts of professional backgrounds. What unites them is a passion for high quality coffees that they can realize together.
Hidardo has been producing microlots since 2015. He has a strong passion for experimenting with new varieties and innovative processing methods. Anaerobic fermentation, in particular, has allowed him to create bold and expressive flavor profiles.
He feels happiest when he can enjoy his morning coffee and then head to his farm to care for his plants.
Alongside developing CAFESMO and managing Cascaritas Farm, Hidardo and his wife run a specialty coffee café in Santa Rosa de Copán. There, they serve Honduran coffees and fine cacao, sharing the quality of their region with their local community.