Coffee Origin Trip: Honduras 2025
by Nic Cramer
Vancouver/Houston/San Pedro Sula
Thankfully the flight out of Vancouver was not an early one. Luckily Damian Durda (change of tone) baked his own bread and made fantastic sandwiches for the first part of the trip, unlike the "ham and cheese buns" when we were Colombia bound. We arrived late evening in San Pedro Sula, Honduras’ second largest city, and were met by Fidel Jr Paz who makes sure logistics run smoothly at Beneficio San Vicente. It's exciting to arrive somewhere at night and discover your surroundings first thing in the morning, but I am glad we saw the giant Smurfs along the path to our domes and didn’t have to discover them first thing in the morning and wonder why we are suddenly in a Smurf Village.
Peña Blanca/Santa Barbara
We started the day with a hearty breakfast of eggs, beans and plantains at Benjamin and his partner’s El Dorao Cafe. Our trip was hosted and guided by Benjamin Paz. The Paz family runs the well known Beneficio San Vicente which also acts as an exporter. Fidel Paz founded Beneficio San Vicente over 20 years ago. In the early 2000's Fidel Jr joined the business as well as Don Fidel's nephew Arturo adding new dimensions of agronomy, sales and marketing expertise to the already successful company. Later in 2009 Benjamin Paz joined the San Vicente team to further develop the strong farmer-roaster connections already forming. After breakfast we headed to San Vicente and hit the ground running with two rounds of cupping (15 different coffees per round). It is prime picking season in Honduras and we were lucky enough to be sampling coffees that farmers wish to enter for the Cup of Excellence (COE), which takes place May 19-23.
After being properly caffeinated we had a lunch of fried chicken, fried plantains, and delicious fizzy lemonade. We went with Ariel Gomez who works in the San Vicente cupping lab to visit Rene Fernandez at his farm Finca Las Huellas. Damian has been buying Rene’s coffees for over six years and his coffee is the majority component for the Las Flores single origin coffee that JJ Bean just released. It was a beautiful sight watching Rene and Damian run towards each other and embrace like old friends, very touching. Before touring the farm, we helped Rene pack up parchment that was dry and put it in storage… It is incredible to see how “effortlessly” he’ll prop an 80+ kg bag onto his back and carry it 15 narrow steps to store it above his washing station.
In November 2020 Honduras was hit by Hurricanes Eta and Iota in a two week span. The mudslides/landslides displaced the entire community of Las Quebradas (70 families). From Rene’s farm we were able to see the new settlement. Benjamin Paz led a crowd funding effort to purchase 20 acres of land and build 80 homes, a school, a church, and get running water and electricity for the community. Damian is supposed to be in charge of building the nightclub (wink wink), the only thing the community will be missing.
As Rene plans to keep increasing his production and innovating he showed us a new part where he has Chiroso “chorizo” seedlings coming up. We first tasted Chiroso during our Colombia coffee trip in 2020.
We travelled back to Rene’s dad’s house, Juan Evangelista, who owns Finca La Maravilla to have a drink (banana oat smoothie). Rene’s family gathered to watch the Argentina vs Brazil World Cup qualifiers (Spoiler Alert: Argentina still has it without Messi).
On the way back we stopped at San Vicente, checked in with the day's activities and connected with Fuglen Coffee Roasters from Norway, who are doing their yearly coffee buying trip.
Once returned to “Smurfville” we wandered around the grounds a bit further to discover a plane that serves as a restaurant flanked by a life size shark at its tail.
Peña Blanca/Santa Barbara
It was an early start to El Dorao for breakfast. Spencer Dunnison (roaster/brewing competitor) is in charge of brewing for the team. Project Origin from Australia is also in town as we chat over delicious food and coffee
We traveled with Arturo Paz, chief agronomist and cupper at San Vicente to visit one of his farms, “El Guaco.” Over the years Arturo has been buying more land surrounding El Guaco (now 50 acres) because previous owners were cutting the forest down. We walked through the forest to another one of Arturo's farms. There are supposed to be armadillos, quetzales, and even monkeys in the forest... sadly none were to be seen. He showed us around the wet mill where he is doing skin contact fermentation in tanks for 24-48 hours. The latest is Weisha from his farm El Tango. Back at San Vicente, we got stuck in an impressive new drying facility waiting out a flash storm. We toured the dry mill; in it coffee in parchment is stacked at least 25 bags high, a very impressive sight. In the coffee lab things were buzzing... Gustavo was still at it sample roasting from a box I saw earlier that day that must have at least 100 samples in it. We cupped some phenomenal coffees that no doubt will be entries to COE next month. A few hours later we left, the humming of the drum roaster still going under Gustavo's watchful eye. We ended up going to a charming restaurant and karaoke was in full swing, so we tried to get Damian's favorite childhood Polish rock star on but alas it wasn’t in rotation. As soon as we arrived at the domes for the night, another huge rainstorm hit and lulled us to sleep.
Peña Blanca/Santa Barbara
Back to El Dorao for avocado on toast with fried egg on top, scrumptious. After a couple rounds of cupping we all gathered around the table to go through Benjamin’s Geisha from his farm "La Salsa" and hand sort it. We barely got the 8 lbs required to make a submission to COE. No promises were made but hopefully we all get a credit if the coffee is a winner.
We made our way to the IHCAFE (Honduras Coffee Institute) to drop off samples. As we were waiting, Damian mentioned that the gentleman sitting next to me happens to be Pedro Lopez (the second third of the Las Flores component). Unfortunately a visit to his farm wasn’t possible but we shared it will be exciting roasting his coffee in a few weeks time. After a quick bite to eat, we were off to visit Elio and Kelvin Piñeda.
We were greeted by Kelvin and Elio and young family members… After touring their new parabolic dryers, an impromptu soccer game took place with no clear winner. One of the boys introduced me to one of their mules, Estrella (Star), and we collected wild berries before taking off to see Kelvin’s “La Arianita” farm. 11 of us got on the back of Edwin’s Toyota Hilux for the journey up to the farm. It was a windy, steep, and bumpy road and we all held on tightly as we passed farmers bringing their coffee back with mules.
Kelvin’s La Arianita is mostly Pacas and Bourbon, but he recently started with some Geisha that should start its first crop in a few years. On our way back to the truck, we heard loud bangs from the valley. My first thought was there must be a party of sorts taking place but Elio informed me that’s the sound of a Canadian mining company in the village. On the way back we are invited to Kelvin’s sister-in-law for coffee and freshly made pancakes. Benjamin, Bjørnar, and Yusho join us for one last round of home brew and we head back to the dry mill to drop off freshly picked coffee. I decided to give propping a burlap sack on my back a try and “deliver” it no more than 30 feet away with some questionable language.
We ended the day at Napoles, an Italian restaurant above El Dorao cafe. We had received a tip that there were special guests waiting for us there… Benjamin’s partner and two year old daughter. It was lovely to meet them. Since it’s such a busy time of year, Benjamin and the rest of the San Vicente crew would be working 12 hour days, seven days a week – it was nice to see the young family together and the young toddler entranced with Bjørnar’s crayon set.
Peña Blanca/San Pedro Sula/PRF
I wouldn’t have thought it, but I was sad I would no longer be seeing Papa Smurf and Smurfette to begin and end our days. Farewell friends! Stay safe from Gargamel.
We made a quick stop at San Vicente before having a traditional Honduras breakfast: Baleadas, which consist of flour tortillas filled with refried beans, cheese, scrambled eggs, avocado, and sour cream. Absolutely delicious.
We headed back to San Pedro Sula where the Producer Roaster Forum was taking place. It is the tenth year for this event and it brings roasters from all over to connect with producers from central/south america to foster long-term relationships.
After dismantling and packing San Vicente's stand, we went for dinner. I would be staying the night with an early morning flight back to Vancouver, while Benjamin, Damian and the rest of the team head back to Peña Blanca.
That evening and on the trek home, I reflected on the last five days. It's great to remember how much time, effort, dedication, and passion goes into each cup of coffee we drink on a daily basis. The people and culture are lovely, and the work done by producers is inspiring. The trip was a whirlwind, and I am very thankful to have had this opportunity.