Sergio Soriano, Finca El Soasal

It marked the sad and abrupt end of my football career, admittedly amateur, but it also opened the door to new beginnings: I was given the opportunity to work as a waiter on a cruise ship based in Copenhagen. For four years, I lived on that ship and we traveled between many of the major and beautiful cities of Northern Europe. That's how I got to know cities like Stockholm, Oslo, Amsterdam, Saint Petersburg, and Helsinki.

After four splendid, but hard-working, years on that ship, I returned to Honduras to follow in my father's footsteps and become a coffee farmer.

In fact, my father cultivated coffee from a humble perspective. He only had a tenth of a hectare and grew large, very tall plants—more like trees. Gradually, I took over and expanded the plot to a total of 8.5 hectares.

Now, I'm 53 and I work almost entirely on my own. I have a son who lives in the US and a daughter in a nearby town, but she works elsewhere. During the harvest, I have people who help me. But coffee is my passion; it's what makes my heart beat faster. The plants represent life to me. They allow us to breathe and, in a more direct sense, they're what put food on my table. I love walking among the neat rows to make sure everything is going well.

There are four varieties I grow: Pacas, Parainema, Obatá, and IHCAFE 90. But I'm actually gradually switching to a Parainema-only operation. It's the cultivar that best resists rust, and I love the sweet, juicy, large berries it produces.

The next step is to sell coffee directly to small roasters in Europe. I want to establish a long-term relationship with one or two roasters and work closely with them to offer consumers a traceable cup of coffee that has resulted from our combined efforts.