Get to know Spirit Animal Coffee

OUR STORY

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Our mission

“Our mission at Spirit Animal Coffee is to shift wealth from corporate supply chains to Honduran coffee growers and provide our customers with sustainable, fresh, premium quality coffee in the process. 

To understand our mission, let us show you how the coffee industry is failing both consumers and those who grow and produce the beans we love.”

Hondurans aren’t receiving sustainable wages or opportunities

Here are some unfortunate statistics that we’re hoping to change:

  • Only 10% of coffee trade revenue stays in Honduras. 
  • And only $1 is earned by producers for every $20 customers spend, even at specialty-grade and fair-trade levels.

Coffee is Honduras' #1 export, and 95% of Honduran coffee is produced by small independent producers. Over 1,000,000 Hondurans are directly or indirectly involved in the coffee trade, so those exploitative industry practices have a large negative impact.

Consumers are getting worse quality coffee

It’s not just coffee growers and producers who are being let down. Consumers are as well. Up to 9 different entities can be involved in traditional coffee industry supply chains. That adds considerable production cost which the consumer pays and the supply chain pockets. There’s little to no traceability, poor shipping and storage conditions can lead to the presence of mycotoxins, and it takes months to get the finished product to consumers. Plus, beans are often over roasted to hide imperfections and create a homogenous flavor out of beans from different sources.

How we’re achieving our mission

At Spirit Animal Coffee we’re doing things differently. We’ve moved our entire supply chain into Honduras, where we are able to remove intermediaries from the equation, create new jobs, and improve local communities. We process and roast all our coffee locally, we package it, and then we ship it worldwide to consumers. We share the revenue stream directly with coffee producers and use the proceeds to spread the knowledge about Honduran coffee to the world. Plus, the coffee is fresher and of higher quality when it arrives at your door, ensuring you’re getting the best coffee Honduras has to offer.

Thank you for your support

Meet the founders

Kathya Irias

Born and raised in Honduras, I grew up with a love for the land and all it produces. Digging my feet into the soil and feeling the life it gives, I learned about planting and harvesting as I accompanied my parents. 

But my most important lesson was to serve and respect everyone who works the land, regardless of social status or role. Agronomy was, and continues to be, one of the most demanding and poorly-paid professions in my country. I'll never forget what it was like to sit down with farmers and have a home-grown cup of coffee. We chatted about their living conditions and the challenges they faced when growing coffee on their own land, and about how terribly undervalued café was on the local market. And with each deliciously pure sip, paradoxically nurtured with care and strong against socio-economic odds, I discovered my passion: to share my country’s coffee as inspiration for reciprocity and respect.

Today, twenty years later, I’ve created Spirit Animal Coffee to leverage my business background towards improving the lives of small-scale farmers. They are already century-long experts in nurturing coffee’s best essence; now, I hope to share with the world the vitality sipped in these beans, so that it may then be fairly cycled back to the hardworking communities that produce them.  

Why coffee? Because I love both the process and result: an invigorating cup of coffee. But most importantly, because more than 20% of my country’s population makes its living from the coffee industry. That's more than 100,000 families that can improve their quality of life and ensure a more sustainable future.  

Now, Spirit Animal coffee invites you to drink with purpose, while you discover the inspiration of sipping in the moment. Let’s celebrate with a true cup of coffee.

Paul Gromek

Seeking a new challenge and the opportunity to create a passion-driven business, I started on a new path. Ever since I can remember, I’ve always appreciated a good cup of coffee; while visiting Honduras, I was amazed and inspired by the quality of their café. 

I spent the next few years travelling all over Latin America around coffee farms, learning about the industry and trying to figure out what makes the perfect cup. I realized that there is a huge potential to share the pure taste of café through specialty coffee -- still mostly unknown in to western market. 

This is when I decided to create a coffee company that delivers only the best and most pure beans. During one of my travels with my friend Kathya, we decided to join forces to deliver high-end specialty coffee at affordable prices.