If you spend any time in the world of Honduran specialty coffee, you will encounter Benjamín Paz Muñoz. He's the person who connects producers in the Santa Bárbara mountains with roasters across the world through Beneficio San Vicente. He's won the Honduras Cup of Excellence outright twice. He runs his own café and micro-roastery in Peña Blanca. And he grows some of the most celebrated coffees coming out of Central America right now. But the thing that defines Benjamín more than any award or accolade is something he said himself: "Coffee is my life, coffee is everything for me. I was born in it, I grew up in it, and I hope my kids work in it."
Three Generations Deep
Benjamín's relationship with coffee is inherited. His grandfather was a coffee producer; his father, Fidel Paz, founded Beneficio San Vicente – the dry mill and exporting operation that has become one of the most respected names in Honduran specialty coffee – about 40 years ago. Growing up, Benjamín worked at San Vicente during every holiday and vacation: de-pulping, drying, storing, learning every part of the process from the ground up. After university he joined full time, in 2009, taking on the task of strengthening the connections between the area's smallholder producers and roasters around the world.
For six years he worked around the community of El Cedral in the Santa Bárbara mountains, visiting producers, cupping their coffees, and building the relationships that give the region its reputation. It was during those years that he fell in love with a particular piece of land near El Cedral – and in 2014, he and a friend bought it.
La Orquidea and La Salsa
The farm they purchased had a clear structure in Benjamín's mind from the start.
In the beginning it was hard going. The access road was rough, costs were high, and new coffee trees take years to produce. By 2016, Benjamín had his first micro-lots ready – and that was enough to keep pushing. "It encouraged him a lot to keep working," as he puts it. The Gesha seeds planted at La Salsa came with a remarkable lineage: they were brought from some of Panama's most famous farms by Nolan Hirte of Proud Mary Coffee during visits to Honduras, meaning the trees growing on that Santa Bárbara hillside share their genetic origins with the finest Geshas in the world.
A Run of Results
What followed was one of the most consistent competitive performances in recent Honduran coffee history.
That community framing is characteristic. Benjamín has always understood his work as extending well beyond his own farms. Through San Vicente he now supports producers across Santa Bárbara, helping them access specialty markets and improve quality – the same model his father built, taken further. He now has eight farms of his own, including La Orquidea, La Salsa, La Leona, and La Colmena among others, each planted with the kind of care and varietal diversity that reflects decades of accumulated knowledge.
La Orquidea and the Pacas Variety
La Orquidea sits near El Cedral at around 1,650 metres above sea level, planted entirely with Pacas. The variety is a natural dwarf mutation of Bourbon – compact in stature, capable of being planted more densely than its parent, and well suited to the cool, misty microclimate of Santa Bárbara where Lake Yojoa's proximity keeps temperatures low and cherry maturation slow. It's not a flashy variety, but in the right hands and at the right altitude it produces a beautifully structured cup – clean, sweet, and expressive of the terroir in a way that rewards careful processing.
Benjamín's approach to processing at La Orquidea is exactly that: careful. The farm has its own processing station, giving him full control over how each lot is handled. It's a level of precision that comes from growing up at a mill, understanding every step of the chain, and knowing what makes the difference between good coffee and exceptional coffee.
How We Got Here
Our relationship with Benjamín is one of Roland's favourite stories to tell. We didn't come to him the usual way – most people seek out Benjamín for his famous coffees and then meet the producers he works with later. We went in the opposite direction. We came to know Benjamín through La Alondra – through Alejandro Girón's thesis interview with Roland, a chance lunch in London, and the moment Alejandro said "Benjamín is my brother's friend, he's the one who exports our coffee." The circle closed, and we ended up with La Alondra's coffee, Benjamín's friendship, and La Orquidea's Pacas on our shelves. Roland loves Pacas – and this one doesn't disappoint.
Traceability
- Country: Honduras
- Department: Santa Bárbara
- Village: El Cedral
- Producer: Benjamín Paz Muñoz
- Farm: La Orquidea
- Elevation: ~1,650 m.a.s.l.
- Varietal: Pacas
- Exporter: Beneficio San Vicente
