Six years ago, Amy Lewellen Contreras considered coffee just an item to pick up at the grocery store, along with bread, fruit, and cereal.
After marrying a fourth-generation Honduran coffee farmer, Lewellen Contreras, who is the study abroad coordinator at Grand Valley State University, can now expertly track the process of taking a coffee bean from seed to harvest, along with what follows: importing, roasting, selling and marketing. When she's not working at the Padnos International Center on GVSU's Allendale Campus, Lewellen Contreras markets her family's brand of coffee to area merchants and wholesalers.
Lewellen Contreras married Armando Contreras in 1995. The two met when Amy was studying biology and Spanish at GVSU and Armando was honing English skills in Grand Rapids.
Armando's family owns a coffee farm near San Antonio De La Cuesta, Honduras. During lengthy stays, Lewellen Contreras learned how to plant and harvest the crop. Harvest season in Honduras runs generally from November to May.
After you pick the beans, you have 24 hours to wash them and bring them down to village to prepare for export, she said.
The beans are then peeled, washed and dried, then spread on large, concrete patios to continue drying. Large farms employ mechanical dryers, but most farmers spread the beans by hand. After hand-sorting the beans to discard those of poor quality, they are bagged for export.
In 1997, the Contrerases and Amy's parents, Melanie and Dale Firebaugh of Traverse City, formed a company ¿ Honduras Coffee Co. ¿ and began to export their coffee from Honduras to Michigan.
Identifiable by the toucan bird on the label, Honduras Coffee Co. is available in many Grand Rapids health food stores, the Farmer's Market on Fulton Street, and D&W Food Centers.
