Ariel Funez
2024 marks the third year of working with one of our best and upcoming producing partners, Ariel Funez. We fell in love with the flavor and intensity of his natural processed coffee, but that just scratches the surface of what makes him, his family, and coffee so amazing. Ariel is a third generation coffee farmer, but saw the struggle his parents faced growing coffee so he decided to attempt to come to America for more opportunity in 2016. The journey turned treacherous and he ended up returning home to restart his career in coffee with a focus on producing the best specialty lots he could. It took multiple years for him to find an outlet for his coffee and we are proud to be among the first coffee roasters to source his microlots. We have since expanded our purchases with Ariel to include his washed coffee, natural Pacamara, and a honey processed lot this season.
One of the attributes that makes Ariel so inspiring is his desire to constantly challenge himself and push the limits of what people say is possible. This attitude has led him to plant multiple new coffee fields in the last two years, increasing his farmland from 5 to 8 hectares. With this land he is exploring new coffee varieties like Yellow Pacamara, Sidra, Geisha, and Pink Bourbon. He is also constantly pushing himself to develop his processing techniques for these coffees. This year, his natural processed coffee is anaerobically fermented for 72-100 hours and his washed lot undergoes an extended 72 hour water fermentation in his newly tiled washing tanks. This will also be the first season for Hyperion purchasing his honey processed coffee.
Ariel has taken a leadership role in his community and feels compelled to grow his business to provide employment and opportunity to those around him. He works closely with his father, brothers, sisters, and neighbors. This is directly visible from his recent purchase of land at an elevation of 2100 meters on the same mountain as his other farm plots. Any coffee expert in Honduras will say that this is too high to grow coffee in their climate, but Ariel thinks otherwise and loves a new challenge. He bought this land because there is a whole community at the top of the mountain with very limited resources and opportunity for work. So instead of walking miles down and back up the mountain to work at his current farm, he brought a new farm to them. He told us he just wants to give them more options to earn money and improve their quality of life. He sees coffee as a chain that can help everyone involved if they have the opportunity. Ariel also shows great care for the environment by preserving the forests and natural plants around his farms.
Like all coffee farmers, Ariel has faced many challenges in recent years. He described that climate change has mainly come in the form of unpredictable rains. This is a major problem in coffee production because rain triggers the coffee plants to flower. The coffee plants flowered very early this year, which led to uneven ripening and a lower harvest yield. The early flowers resulted in coffee cherries that did not fully develop and cannot be processed as specialty coffee. This leads to more lower quality conventional coffee being produced, which has seen very low and unsustainable prices over the last few years. He also expressed that coffee production has gotten much more expensive due to increased costs of inputs and a tight labor market. Many pickers that previously traveled all over Central America for the coffee harvest have made their way to the US. The experience of increased production costs and lack of labor for harvest has been shared by every coffee producer we’ve visited in the last three years. This cuts into producers' small margins and really drives home the need for them to sell their coffee as directly as possible and for higher, more sustainable prices.
Despite the challenges, Ariel is excited to continue and grow his coffee business. He sees hope in direct relationships with coffee roasters in the US, developing his new farms and coffee varieties, and continuing to compete in the Honduras Cup of Excellence with his best lots. We love to work with producers like Ariel and are excited for his future as one of the premier producers and leaders of specialty coffee in Honduras.
