Our Story

In 2007, in the garage of their first marital home, Sean and Michelle Marshall started Fusion Beans on the south side of Houston, Texas.

Sean started his romance with coffee as a barista and as his passion for it grew, so did his love and appreciation for all the people involved in its production.He began apprenticing under Ken Palmer through whom he learned how to roast coffee, as well as its place in history. Sean’s first Fusion Beans account was Tiny Boxwoods, where he was previously employed, and grew further through farmer markets and word of mouth.

As Fusion Beans grew, Sean started developing direct relationships with the farmers he sourced his coffee from. First of which was with Diego Guardia out of Hacienda Sonora in Costa Rica, a relationship we still cherish. The interest in helping people grow in and around coffee, including farmers, lead Sean and Andrew Nicholson to establish Rayyan Mill in Yemen. Andy had previously studied the Arabic language in Yemen and had grown to love the people and culture. Knowing the historical importance of Yemeni coffee and wanting to help the war-torn country, the two opened the mill in 2012.

At the same time, Sean stepped out locally by opening his first shop Southside Espresso in the heart of Montrose of Houston, Texas. Six years later, came his second shop Coterié in Downtown Houston.

Through these ventures, Fusion Beans hopes to help expand people’s knowledge of coffee, the farmers, and the care and love that goes into your cup. We want to help people find the good.

 

Pleased to Meet Y’all

Sean Marshall

Owner & Roastmaster

Sean is a lover of coffee and cherishes sharing his vast knowledge on the subject. Ask him a coffee question if you’re willing to listen for a couple hours. Find him making a mean espresso martini at Coterié café or putting some love into a cute cappuccino at Southside Espresso. Outside of work Sean is a father of two, husband to Michelle, and friends with everyone. He spends most of his time asking his loved ones, “Have I told you how beautiful you are today?”, and reminding everyone to "Be Very Kind" and to “Find the Good".

Michelle Marshall

Owner & Certified Badass

Michelle is the badass behind it all. She raises her and Sean’s children Thomas and Eisley while working 50 hours a week as a Nurse Practitioner at several hospitals in the southern Houston region including UTMB. She travels on all coffee origin trip and assists in selecting coffees to include in Fusion Bean’s repertoire. She is Queen to Sean’s King of Coffee, Mother of shops.

 

Our Farmers

  • Josué Morales

    Owner of Beneficio La Esperanza in Antigua, Guatemala. Josué works closely with agronomist Luis Barrios to help the surrounding small farmers improve their cultivation and harvesting techniques including overall soil health and proper shading. Josué has started a program that takes farmers through the processing, roasting, and cupping of their coffees, allowing them to experience their hard work first hand. Josué’s own coffee trees are subject to much experimentation, such as varying the space between rows of coffee plants and the amount of shade trees. He is one of 5 coffee farmers in the world to have an area dedicated to “wild coffee,” where the only human influence is occasional pruning and harvesting. Josué’s dedication to the science behind coffee and the farmers and harvesters themselves makes him a key player in the growth and development in the coffee industry within Guatemala.

  • Rayyan Mill

    In 2012, Andrew Nicolson and Sean Marshall started Rayyan Mill with the desire to breathe new life into war-torn Yemen’s economy while helping to reestablish Yemen’s coffee industry that dates back to the 15th century. Their commitment to cup quality, farm level interventions, good processing methods and relentless quality control coupled with their relationships with farmers (and many others in the supply chain) in Yemen make Rayyan a strong bridge between the Yemen coffee people and the specialty coffee market. The war in Yemen creates a difficult environment for producing and exporting coffee, with bomb blasts that shake the mill itself. However, through these difficulties, Andy and Sean are dedicated to the farmers and the families who have been producing coffee for generations.

  • Asnakech Thomas

    First and only female mill owner in Ethiopia. In 2005, she returned to her hometown to improve the quality of coffee and living conditions in her community. Her mill produces both washed and natural coffees and she is said to be very strict in ensuring cherries are ripe and ready before sending them to her washing station. Cherries are dried on raised beds to create a cleaner coffee and even aeration for quality. Thomas’ farm trains neighboring farmers in quality and high-yielding practices as well as starting an incentive program for farmers to plant more trees to fight climate change. She has started an association for women-in-coffee, sponsors The Amaro Gayo Football Team for local youth, and funds local schools to purchase books and laptops.

  • Diego Guardia

    Son of Alberto Guardia, who turned a mainly sugar cane and ornamental plant producing farm into a mainly specialty coffee farm. The family turned a 100+ year old sugar processing mill with a water wheel into a coffee mill, making it self-sustaining and ecologically responsible. Diego effectively saved their farm and mill by changing their main export over to specialty coffee. Visit them at SonoraCoffee.com.

  • Luis Pedro

    Owner of Bella Vista Beneficio in Antigua, Guatemala. The family has been producing coffee for decades using traditional washed and sun-drying processes. They focus on maintaining soil health and quality by enriching the soil, rotating crops, as well as treating the soil for disease. The small farms in surrounding areas are a focus of the mill. They help their neighbors by teaching environmental practices and by purchasing and processing their coffee cherries at the family mill.