Clave de Sol

Marcala is a municipality located in the department of La Paz, in southwest Honduras. A few years ago, there was a large cooperative to which many small producers belonged. When it broke up, the cooperative abandoned all its member producers who found themselves without a mill for their coffees. A lot of small producers then decided to join forces to create a private cooperatives.
Marcala has a mill for dry and wet coffee preparation. The producers process most of their coffees themselves. They buy very little parchment coffee, and when they do, they buy only from producers to whom they have given coffee processing recommendations.

The Marcala appellation is characterised by its:
- 2 500 producers
- 19 municipalities, in 3 departments, all with a history of coffee production in Marcala
- farming at a minimum altitude of 1,100 metres
- characteristic profile with a medium to high acidity, lots of body and spicy notes

The department of La Paz is located in the extreme southwest of Honduras, on the border with El Salvador, at an altitude of between 1,000 and 1,600 meters above sea level. The department was created on 28 May 1869. Prior to its creation as a department, it belonged to the department of Comayagua, the historic centre of coffee production in Honduras. 

The department of La Paz covers an area of 2,525 km² and its capital is the city of La Paz. Its territory is divided into 19 municipalities, 114 villages and 1,143 hamlets. Its inhabitants are mainly engaged in agriculture, livestock farming and trade. The main crops are coffee, corn, henequen, sugar cane and fruit.