Honduran Coffee

Amy and Armando Contreras/Honduras Coffee Company (Wyoming, Michigan)
In Honduras, coffee cultivation is passed down through the generations. Armando Contreras is the 4th generation in his family to grow coffee. In fact, he was born on his family’s coffee farm. As a young boy, he loaded heavy sacks of coffee on the back of a burro to carry it to the markets in San Antonio La Cuesta. By age 14, when his father passed away, Armando was in charge of the family coffee operations. Today he and his wife Amy, a biologist from Michigan, split their time between Honduras and the United States. They cultivate shade-grown, organic coffee between 1,000 and 1,800 meters above sea level in the Comayagua Mountains; then they bring it back to Michigan to roast. Their coffee production is a family affair. Armando’s grandfather, Anastacio, is in his late eighties and still tends to his coffee farm in the mountains. Amy’s parents, Dale and Melanie Firebaugh, are partners in the family’s Honduras Coffee Company.