By Katie Spencer
Carrboro Commons Writer
In the green mountains of Honduras, Chapel Hill resident Hunter Barbee found the familiar logo of his favorite coffee shop. And it wasn’t Starbucks. It was Carrboro’s own Open Eye Cafe.
Barbee, 22, was touring a coffee farm in the small highland village of Copan with a group that spent the week building houses with Habitat for Humanity.
“I just walked in, and the first thing I saw was an Open Eye sticker on the office window,†Barbee said. “I did a double-take.â€
Excited, Barbee had trouble communicating the coincidence to manager Guillermo Calderon.
“I’m sure he actually understood what I was saying, but I just explained myself over and over,†he said.
Luckily, Barbee didn’t need words. He bears the Open Eye logo on his person: a small tattoo on his wrist that gets him a free cup of joe in exchange for a little advertising. The image broke the language barrier.
“I ran around showing the tattoo on my arm and pointing to the picture,†he said.
Calderon, 35, has known Open Eye co-owner Scott Conary since August, when Conary traveled to Honduras to share his knowledge of quality coffee roasting.
“It surprised him to find an espresso machine in the middle of coffee farmland,†Calderon said in an email.
At home in Carrboro, Conary is involved in as much of the process as possible, from roasting at Carrboro Coffee Co., which he co-owns, to retail at Open Eye and Caffe Driade. But the climate required for growing coffee limits his participation: You can’t grow coffee in Carrboro. This fact connects Conary to places like Copan.
“I go to countries and try to build relationships with farmers and get direct trade,†Copan said.
Making coffee is an intricate process of planting; waiting; picking; processing; roasting; cupping, or tasting; and, finally, selling.
“Literally hundreds of hands are touching that coffee before it gets to the customer,†Conary said.
The importance of each step creates interdependency between Conary and growers like Calderon. A slipup anywhere along the line could ruin three to five years of work, he said.
“It’s called ‘seed to cup,’†Conary said. “We’re honoring the chain.â€
Conary’s interest in coffee links him to places across the world. It has taken him all over Central and South America. Last year he went to Tokyo to judge the World Barista Championship. This year he will go to Copenhagen, Denmark.
“Coffee is cool. It takes you around,†he said.
The main focus of Conary’s trip to Honduras was to share expertise in quality roasting. Historically, Honduran coffee growers sell what they can and roast what is left, which is usually of poor quality, Conary said.
“The goal was to equate quality with the work and the price,†he said. He said he hopes to encourage a taste for good java in a country covered in coffee plants.
Calderon’s farm, Finca Santa Isabel, is in the mountains of western Honduras.
“It was beautiful, as is much of Honduras,†Barbee said.
Calderon oversees the operations of the whole farm, from coffee to poultry to honey, with a focus on environmentally sound practices.
“The farm is a beautiful example of what you can do with ecotourism,†Conary said.
Calderon said that growing and processing coffee covers a wide range of disciplines, from agriculture to chemistry to art. “Our clients’ job is to have a passion,†he said. “[Conary] is a person who has a passion for the art of coffee.â€
Although Conary was at Finca Santa Isabel for only a couple of days, he and Calderon connected.
“We got along famously. I consider him a good friend,†Conary said.
Barbee said Calderon was excited about Barbee’s connection to Carrboro.
“I think he expected me to know Scott personally,†Barbee said.
Katie Spencer is a UNC-CH student writing for the Carrboro Commons, the bi-weekly online lab newspaper for Carrboro produced by Jock Lauterer’s Community Journalism class.