This Honduran Roaster Is Changing the Game

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If you drink high-quality coffee, you might have noticed that 99% of it is made the same way.

First, the coffee beans are grown in another country—typically somewhere in East or West Africa, or in Central or South America, or even in Southeast Asia. Then they are cured, or dried. Then the dried, green beans are shipped to a roaster somewhere in Europe or America. This can be either a small roaster or coffee shop nearby, or it can be a large-scale roaster such as Starbucks.

Finally, they're roasted. If it's a small shop or roaster, they might be ground and brewed all in the same place. Interestingly, this process allows fans of coffee to buy a bag, or a cup that feels both local and global, so you can enjoy, say, an "Ethiopian Yirgacheffe" that feels like it came from around the corner.

This may seem well and good, but there's a very important hitch: The farmers who grow and produce all this coffee rarely, if ever, have a chance to actually taste it. And they certainly don't taste it the way you might. High-end roasting equipment costs thousands of dollars, more than a farmer would be able to afford. Learning how to use that equipment well takes more time and resources.

This hitch causes a number of problems. First, it means that green beans aren't valued nearly as highly as the roasted coffee. Farmers are rarely paid adequately for their beans, even ones that use the fair trade label, even if what they're growing ends up making really high-quality coffee.

Secondly it creates a break in the cycle that can lead to quality issues. A farmer who never tastes her or his product has a much harder time understanding if what they're growing is good—or why it's good if it is. Or how to change things if it's not.

Imagine a wine maker who never tasted their wine. Or a tomato farmer who never tasted their vegetables. The fruit might look fine, but if it's getting too much water, or not enough nutrients, how would the farmer know?

In Honduras, now, there's a small company, Spirit Animal Coffee, that's aiming to change the system. They're roasting the beans they buy right there, in the city of San Pedro Sula, and then shipping the roasted coffee directly to American consumers each week.

For high-end coffee nerds, this has the potential to be a total game-changer. Not only does it mean supporting farmers, and supporting the country of origin, more directly, but theoretically a more complete cycle of coffee growing and roasting means much more high-quality coffee.

I had a chance, recently, to speak with Kathy Iras and Paul Gromek, founders of Spirit Animal, and they told me already how much of a difference roasting in-country has made to the farmers.

Beyond being able to pay far above-average rates, they've been able to work with farmers, by roasting and brewing their beans, to show them what their coffee tastes like. "We brewed up the beans for one farmer who tasted the coffee and immediately had ideas about how to improve the flavor," Kathy told me. "He couldn't wait to get back to his farm."

How Spirit Animal Coffee Tastes

Kathy and Paul were kind enough to send me a couple bags so I could try it myself. Up front, I was skeptical. Roasted coffee is not nearly as shelf stable as green beans. Would coffee that was roasted in and shipped from Honduras be any good? Would the extra expense be worth it?

I was impressed to see that each bag comes with a q-grade score, giving you a general sense of what to expect. I was also happy to see that each bag comes with a stamped roast date—and the coffee was very fresh, just as I get from local roasters.

So I tried the coffee — several kinds, over several days, using both pour-over and aero-press methods. I was prepared to find that in-country roasted coffee was more of a gimmick than anything else—a pleasant idea, but with too many downsides for actual coffee drinkers.

What I found, instead, is that this coffee is as good or better than some of the best coffee I've had. It's very low in acidity, with a variety of complex and interesting flavors. The beans are incredibly well-roasted. And the single-origin nature means that not only do you get to know exactly where your beans come from — and who grew them — but it's easy to buy and support a farm that grows the particular coffee you like.

What's clear, from Kathy and Paul's methods, is that for high-end coffee fans, this is likely just the beginning. As growers are now able to see and understand the full cycle of their beans, from ground to cup, they're only likely to get better at growing and producing high-level coffee.

If you, or someone you know, loves great coffee, Spirit Animal is a worthy splurge. It supports a great cause, and you'll know it's going to be a bag of coffee that's well worth drinking. And more than that, it supports the future of coffee making. Learn more about their coffee and their process on their site.

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