Plum Runner

About the Coffee

Evin Herrera farms in Honduras, but his connection to Phil & Sebastian goes back further than his coffee. When Sebastian first met him in 2012, Evin was a teenager helping his father, Margarito Herrera, on the family farm. Margarito built the operation, and his two sons, Evin and Kevin, have since taken it over entirely.

The coffee is washed: depulped the same day it's picked, fermented for 36 to 40 hours, then dried on shaded raised beds at Margarito's property. Shaded drying slows the process and gives the coffee more even moisture loss than open sun drying. Every harvest, Sebastian visits Honduras and cups individual daylots from every producer they work with. The lots that end up in this blend are the ones that stood out from that process.

Over the past few years, Evin has overhauled his farm management, added quality control steps to his processing, and reinvested his income into acquiring more land and planting more coffee. Phil and Sebastian also have a small farm in Honduras where Evin and Kevin are partners in getting the project off the ground. The elevation makes it hard going for new coffee plants, but it's a long-term bet both sides are committed to.

About Phil & Sebastian

Phil Robertson and Sebastian Sztabzyb co-founded Phil & Sebastian in Calgary in 2007. Phil came from an engineering background and designed the roastery's custom roasting machine, while Sebastian's focus has been on the cafe side and sourcing trips to Central and South America. They've been buying coffee from the Herrera family for well over a decade.

Their sourcing approach is built around direct relationships and paying above the industry average for green coffee. The connection to Evin Herrera is a good example of how that works in practice: what started as buying through his father has grown into a partnership that includes their own shared farm project in Honduras.

"Phil & Sebastian is a favourite of mine from my time in Calgary. My wife swore by their "Hartmann Honey" beans, and we stocked it (or, maybe "hoarded" is a better word) for as long as they sold it. It feels like a 'full circle' moment to finally have them in our rotation."

- Dean, Director of Coffee