Who Are Mercanta?

Leah is a proper veteran of the coffee industry!

Born in Los Angeles, Leah began her career in coffee in the San Francisco Bay Area, managing cafés and retail shops. She later left the Bay Area for Portland, Oregon where she worked in retail coffee and café management for seven years.

Leah moved to Southeast Asia, where she managed a roaster retailer business for 12 years, covering Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Japan. She returned to the United States in 2008 and that same year began working for Mercanta as our regional manager in North America.

Leah is an avid photographer and is responsible for many of the excellent images you see across the Mercanta website.

She has more than a decade of experience as a Cup of Excellence juror, and has judged for the WBC and USBC.

Leah is another professional who sees every day as an opportunity to learn more about our crazy industry.
“Coffee is a remarkable adventure. My experience in coffee may be many in years, but every day feels new to me.”

Christian Schaps was born and grew up in Guatemala. He is a fourth generation coffee producer and has considerable experience as both a farm manager and owner.

Christian is passionate about coffee and began cupping at home while he was still an undergraduate at Cal Poly in California. After graduating he returned to Guatemala to work on his family’s coffee farms and went on to source coffee for various companies worldwide.

Christian joined Mercanta in 1997 to source coffees from Guatemala and El Salvador. He has since set up the Mercanta Central America office and lab, dealing with purchasing, logistics and quality control for Central America, Bolivia and Mexico.

Christian has served on Guatemala Cup of Excellence juries in 2008, 2009 & 2012.

Megan has been with Mercanta for a third of her life time.

Megan discovered her love of coffee while working as a barista at Starbucks in Wisconsin during her college years.

After an internship at Disney World and spending some time in Brazil, the student loan payments persuaded her to return stateside to become a grown-up. During her travels, Megan had visited coffee farms in Guatemala and Brazil and she was finding it difficult to get rid of that coffee bug. Instead of resisting, she purged her belongings and stuffed what was left into her Mazda 3 and drove across the country to the specialty coffee hub of Seattle, WA for her role with Mercanta.

She supports our expanding Mercanta North America operations through sales and logistics. In her free time you’ll find her pursuing projects in woodworking, block printing, and needle work. Or you’ll find her hanging out with the dogs down at her local Humane shelter, where she regularly volunteers.

Megan back’s Mercanta’s view of income security for producers at origin – “I think we need to realize how many hands it takes to create that one cup of coffee we have every day, and start paying for the labour behind it. I hope the new norm will be people understanding what exactly they are paying for when they pay higher prices for the cup of coffee.”

Michaela got into the coffee scene early! She was just 18 when she first began working as a barista at a specialty coffee roaster in Las Vegas.

During her time at the University of Oxford, Michaela worked with coffee producers in Brazil to understand how natural benefits from surrounding ecosystems help producers improve the quality and yield of their coffee.  She then went on to study the impacts of climate change on smallholder coffee producers in Kenya and how to improve the Adaptive Capacity of these producers.

Throughout her years, she also spent time as a Sensory Analyst, coffee educator, and has visited a number of coffee-producing countries.  She seeks to help improve the sustainability of the coffee sector, spread awareness regarding the importance of specialty coffee and create a future for coffee in light of climate change.

“We have coffee, we drink coffee, coffee is on the shelves of our grocery stores and in our cafes all thanks to the hardworking and passionate producers throughout the Coffee Belt. My work is for them, to help create a future for their families and communities.”

Ryan started out his coffee journey at Starbucks as a high school barista. After falling in love with the artistry of coffee as well as the warmth of an established community of other industry professionals, he jumped in headfirst.

Continuing his passion for learning and growth about coffee, he deferred college to work at the Starbucks Reserve and later in the Starbucks Green Coffee Lab. However, he did not feel knowledgeable enough about coffee and left Starbucks to grow his skills as a barista at Hagen Coffee Roasters alongside the United States’ best coffee competitors. After a few years in a rigorous and fast-paced environment, he felt equipped and ready to resume his journey in green coffee quality and grading.

At Mercanta, Ryan strives to create a positive and lively environment while still focusing on growing his knowledge of green coffee quality. Although he has only been in coffee for 5 years, he looks forward to the decades of growth and learning that lie ahead.

His goals in his career include becoming a licensed Q Arabica Grader and owning a farm in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea