Variety record
Parainema
Honduran-bred, rust-resistant, and the 2026 national competition winner at 89.14 points.
Commonly got wrong
Regularly assumed to be an import. It is Honduran-bred. A natural-process Parainema took the number one lot at the 2026 Honduras Cup of Excellence with 89.14 points, which is worth knowing before writing off rust-resistant material.
Parainema is a Sarchimor-derived variety bred by IHCAFE in Honduras, and it is a useful corrective to a widely held assumption.
Rust resistance and cup quality
Varieties carrying Timor Hybrid material for leaf-rust resistance have a poor reputation in the cup. That reputation was earned by earlier introgressed releases and it has been applied to the whole category since.
At the 2026 Honduras Cup of Excellence, a natural-process Parainema from Finca La Loma in Santa Barbara scored 89.14 and took the top lot at $28.40 per pound. One competition-winning lot is selected material and does not describe what an average planting does. It does establish that the ceiling is well above where the category reputation puts it.
Why this matters beyond Honduras
The economics of coffee are pushing producers toward disease-resistant material whether or not the specialty trade approves. A variety that resists rust and can reach the high eighties on a competition form is the shape of the thing that has to work.
Qualifications on the record
- Parentage
- Sarchimor-derived, carrying Timor Hybrid material for rust resistance
- Typical cup
- Sweet and full-bodied, with more clarity than introgressed varieties are usually credited with.
- What “Declared only” means here
- Nobody has tested it. This is the normal state of almost every coffee sold.
Origins where it is recorded
-
Honduras
A top competition lot at $28.40 a pound - nine times the C market, and a seventh of what the same season paid in Costa Rica.