Airship Coffee started in the mountains of Honduras, not in a roastery. Founder Mark Bray, an agronomist working on sustainable agriculture projects in Central America, arrived in 2006 to help local farmers with soil and crop science but quickly realised the bigger problem was market access. The farming communities he worked with were growing good coffee and had no reliable supply chain to sell it through. That gap became the reason Airship exists. Mark and his wife Amber began roasting on a popcorn popper in their garage in Bentonville, Arkansas in 2008, moved into a small warehouse downtown in 2012, and have since opened several café locations across Bentonville. The sourcing remains direct trade, built on relationships with farming communities in Honduras, Guatemala, and five other producing countries that go back nearly two decades.