Spirit Origin Wins Top Lot at Record-Breaking Honduras Cup of Excellence for Second Straight Year

The champion Parainema from Finca La Loma will be roasted at origin and served in limited quantities at Spirit Origin's Coffee Omakase in Roatán, Honduras.

ROATAN, BAY ISLANDS, HONDURAS, July 17, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Spirit Origin Coffee has won the #1 ranked lot at the 2026 Cup of Excellence Honduras Auction: an extraordinary Natural-process Parainema from Finca La Loma in Santa Bárbara, produced by Ottoniel Sagastume Pineda and scored 89.14 points by the international Cup of Excellence jury.

For the second consecutive year, the finest coffee in Honduras will not leave Honduras.

Last year, Spirit Origin (then Spirit Animal Coffee) made global headlines by becoming the first company in Cup of Excellence history — in any producing country — to acquire both the 1st and 2nd place lots and keep them at origin, roasted and served in the country that grew them. This year's win turns that milestone into a movement: a coffee company rooted in Honduras once again outbid the world's most prestigious international roasters to bring the nation's champion coffee home.

The victory comes in a record-breaking year. The 2026 Honduras Cup of Excellence auction shattered its historic average price record, with buyers from around the globe competing for the country's top lots. Spirit Origin secured the #1 lot at $28.40 per pound, with proceeds flowing directly to the producer.

A Champion 17 Years in the Making

Ottoniel Sagastume Pineda, 45, has spent 17 years cultivating coffee at Finca La Loma in the highlands of Santa Bárbara, Honduras' most decorated coffee-growing department. His shade-grown Parainema — a resilient, Honduras-born variety long overshadowed by imported cultivars — reached the top of the national competition through meticulous natural processing, despite heavy rains and punishing farm roads he overcame by investing in his own equipment and his community's labor.

His win is also a triumph for Parainema itself: proof that a variety developed in Honduras, grown by a Honduran producer, can beat the world's most celebrated cultivars at the country's highest level of competition.

From the Highest Point on Roatán, in Extremely Limited Quantities

The champion La Loma lot will be roasted at origin at Spirit Origin's 12,000-square-foot flagship roastery in First Bight, Roatán, one of the highest points on the island and served exclusively at the company's 21-seat, reservation-only Coffee Omakase, the first experience of its kind in Central America.

With very limited volume of this coffee, availability will be strictly limited. Guests will taste the #1 coffee in Honduras just miles from where the movement to keep it home began — brewed by SCA-certified baristas, with the producer's story served alongside every cup. Reservations will open soon at spiritorigincoffee.com.

"The Best of Honduras Belongs in Honduras — and Now the World Comes to Us"

"Last year we made history. This year we made it a tradition," said Paul Gromek, CEO and Co-Founder of Spirit Origin Coffee. "For generations, the greatest coffees Honduras produced were shipped abroad before a single Honduran could taste them. We've reversed that. Ottoniel's coffee — the best in the country — will be roasted here, served here, and celebrated here. And instead of this coffee traveling to the world, the world will travel to Roatán to taste it."

Lot Details — 2026 Cup of Excellence Honduras, #1 Lot

Farm: Finca La Loma, Santa Bárbara, Honduras. Producer: Ottoniel Sagastume Pineda. Variety: Parainema. Process: Natural. Harvest: 2025–2026. Jury score: 89.14. Lot size: 529.11 lbs (8 boxes). Winning bid: $28.40/lb — $15,026.72 total.

About Spirit Origin Coffee

Spirit Origin Coffee (formerly Spirit Animal Coffee) is a B Corp-certified specialty coffee company based in Roatán, Honduras, dedicated to empowering small-scale producers through direct trade, transparent sourcing, and roasting at origin. Its flagship in First Bight houses a Probat roastery, a café ranked among the Top 100 Coffee Shops in the Americas, the From the Roots restaurant, and Central America's first Coffee Omakase — a 21-seat, reservation-only tasting experience developed in partnership with Tokyo's KOFFEE MAMEYA. Spirit Origin is the back-to-back buyer of Honduras' Cup of Excellence #1 lots (2025 and 2026), including both the #1 and #2 lots in 2025 — a first in global Cup of Excellence history.

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Coffee Omakase at Spirit Origin Coffee, Roatan, Honduras

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