Fernando and Hannah-Love Diaz
Proyecto Diaz Coffee | Oakland, CA
September 2026
Fernando Diaz grew up hearing about his grandfather's coffee farm, El Carmen, in Oaxaca, Mexico, but never imagined following in his footsteps. As an adult, Fernando started to feel restless at his job as a paralegal, so he looked for any opportunity he could find to get up and grab a cup of coffee. He noticed many roasters were sourcing coffee from producers such as his grandfather, but none being from coffee-growing families themselves. Fernando saw this as an opportunity to be one of the first vertically integrated coffee roasters in the Bay Area and started roasting coffee himself. He began by roasting green coffee that was shipped to him from his grandfather's farm, using a skillet in his kitchen and comparing the results to beans from local roasters. After hosting a few pop-ups in San Francisco's Mission District, he began working as a production assistant at a local roastery. While there, Fernando continued to pop up around the Bay Area as Proyecto Diaz Coffee, creating groundswell and word-of-mouth recognition for his Latin American coffee program. In 2016, he launched a successful Kickstarter campaign that helped secure an independent roastery in San Leandro, California. From there, he built up wholesale accounts with cafes, grocery stores, and even formidable restaurants like Californios.
Hannah-Love Diaz began her career as a graphic designer on the East coast. In 2012, she moved to San Francisco to pursue a career in design and advertising, and met Fernando at one of his pop-ups. Soon after, she joined his venture, and over time, their successful business partnership turned into a lifelong one. After becoming a full-fledged LLC in 2016, Hannah-Love became a co-owner in the business with Fernando and has spearheaded the branding and marketing side of the operation. Since then, Proyecto Diaz Coffee has also steadily grown its wholesale business, relocated its roastery to Oakland, and opened its first cafe in 2023 in the West Oakland neighborhood. Looking ahead, the Diazes hope to one day expand their cafes and wholesale footprint. But their commitments will stay the same—sourcing coffee exclusively from small-scale farmers and co-ops in Latin America and investing ten-percent of their net profit into their mission to rebuild farms and legacies.
2026 StarChefs San Francisco-Oakland Rising Stars Award Winner
