Honduras - Ariel Funez - Pacamara

Region: Comayagua

Elevation: 1600 meters

Cultivar: Pacamara

Process: Natural

Notes: Kiwi, Tart Cherry, Raspberry, Cinnamon, Lychee

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This is our second year working with Ariel and Honduras Coffee Alliance and we are very excited to represent his coffee as he establishes himself as a rising star in Honduran coffee. We jumped at the opportunity to visit Ariel and his farm in the spring of 2023. The Funez family were the most gracious hosts we could have asked for. We were greeted with a delicious plato tipico before heading out to Ariel’s fields to check out the coming harvest. He showed us lush fields of Lempira and Pacamara cultivars that were about to explode with coffee flowers for the next season. His son gave us a lesson in coffee picking before heading back to the house for another beautiful meal of chicken and vegetable stew. Afterwards, we toured his wet mill and drying beds while Ariel explained his processes and the improvements he made last season with proceeds from our purchases. He plans to continually reinvest in his farm by improving his drying equipment and processes to provide Hyperion with the best coffee possible. This is the type of relationship Hyperion is striving to build and we were able to contract 5 times the amount of coffee from Ariel in 2023 compared to the previous season.

Ariel is a third generation coffee farmer, growing up in the same area where he now has a farm. Growing up on his parents farm, coffee farming was always a struggle and he was only able to finish 9th grade. Ariel has had quite a journey to get to where he now is able to process and sell his amazing microlots.

Ariel worked in coffee for several years but struggled. In 2016 he decided there wasn’t a future for him in Honduras and attempted to emigrate, but didn’t make it to the US. Upon his return, his father decided to give him a small plot of land that had previously been used to grow corn and beans and which he has transformed into a coffee farm.

He sees specialty coffee as the only way forward. He had been trying to produce and sell microlots for several years with little success. He has tried washed, honey, and natural processes but became frustrated as he was able to produce great quality but wasn’t able to find a market. Josue didn’t give up as he says he is a fighter; and has since entered multiple lots in the Honduran Cup of Excellence and found a home for a large portion of his coffee with Hyperion.

In 2023, Hyperion secured three lots from Ariel. A washed and natural process Lempira, as well as a washed Pacamara that he sold to us instead of entering into the Cup of Excellence competition.