Honduras Pablo Paz

Over ten years ago a group of us traveled to Honduras to learn about coffee production around La Union, a town of around 10,000 in the western part of the country. There we met Pablo Paz, a producer from a family that has grown quality coffee for decades, long before many of us in the specialty coffee world were paying a premium for high quality beans or waxing poetic about distinctive micro-lots.

We were connected with Pablo and his community through Aldea Development, a non-profit organization co-founded by University of Michigan grads. Aldea started working in La Union in 2009 with a focus on microfinace. Today, their community development efforts extend to agricultural support and training, market access, and other projects. They have full-time staff living and working year-round in Honduras to support the work.

Coffee plays an important role in Pablo’s life on multiple levels. It is his livelihood and also a source of pride–a means of connecting to his village and to his history. We are honored to have a role in bringing Pablo’s coffee to our little part of the world and, we hope, showcasing it at its very best!

Steve Mangigian, our managing partner and roastmaster, noted: “What I love about this coffee and the overall relationship is that Pablo has been committed to producing better quality with every crop. We have a saying at Zingerman’s, ‘You Really Can Taste the Difference’, and when our partners along the supply chain are aligned toward quality, the integrity of that promise remains fulfilled.”