Mariana Faerron has a special connection to coffee.  Growing up in Central Valley, Costa Rica, she remembers being surrounded by it, whether it was the fragrant scent of the cherry blossoms or while drinking it brewed as a child.  She always knew she wanted to own a business, and after receiving a degree in the agriculture field, she moved to the US with her husband, Thomas.  While living in the US, Mariana was unable to find the quality and consistency of coffee that she was used to, and she realized that she had the opportunity to introduce Americans to high-end Costa Rican coffees.  Tico, a nickname for natives of Costa Rica, represents Mariana’s heritage and connection to coffee.  While educating customers about high-end specialty coffees, she has also been able to portray the amount of hard work and dedication that goes into coffee on behalf of the farmers.   I talked to Mariana to learn more about her heritage, being a finalist in the Good Food Awards, and what it is like to be a woman-owned business in the coffee industry.

Interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.

Can you tell me a little bit about Tico Coffee?

We are a small coffee-roasting company from Campbell in the South Bay, California.  We specialize in high-quality coffee beans from around the world and also fine teas from China, Japan, India, and South Africa.  Most of our coffees are direct-trade.  I come from Costa Rica, so for me it is important to not just work and buy from a farmer but really to understand how they are growing these coffees, what it means to them, and to find ways we can help them beyond just purchasing their harvest.  We do a lot of wholesale to companies here in the valley. 

How did you get introduced to coffee?

I grew up literally surrounded by coffee.  I grew up in a small town in the Central Valley in Costa Rica.  That was my introduction to coffee, it has been in my life all this time, and I’ve been drinking coffee ever since I remember.  For me, this is something that I truly enjoy, but it’s also a part of who I am and a part of my culture.  It’s how we relate, it’s really meaningful for us.  My love for nature and agriculture comes from my childhood and from my father who was a farmer.  I studied agrobusiness in university, because I wanted to have a job that would allow me to spend a lot of my time in nature, and that was a great fit.  While I was doing that, I worked with some coffee farmers, and that’s how I got to know the industry a little better.  When I moved to the bay area, I was missing my country and really missing my coffee here in the states.  There were coffee shops everywhere, but the quality wasn’t really there.  I was always bringing coffee when I came back to the US, and I was thinking there had to be a better way to do this.  That’s when I decided to start Tico.

Did you know you always wanted to work in coffee?

In Costa Rica, I always knew I wanted to own a business, but I wasn’t sure what kind of business.  Being here, missing my country, bringing coffee back, and hearing that people liked it, that for me was the aha-moment to say, “I have friends who are coffee farmers, I can work with them and expand my business to other countries and farmers”.  

You were a finalist in the Good Food Awards.  What made you want to compete?

I’m pretty proud of the work we have done.  I moved here with nothing, just suitcases.  My husband was here, but I came and pretty much had to just start my life from scratch again.  For me to be able to come and start this company and learn to roast, being able to transform those beans into something people enjoy, makes me feel humbled but also proud, because it has been a lot of work.  I have put a lot of effort into this.  I wanted to give it a try, because roasters that I really respect from all over the country are sending in samples, so I was really honored to be selected as one of the finalists.  We just sent in one sample. 

What is your process when you select green coffee and roast it?

We started with two coffees and then we went to five, and now we have about eighteen different coffees.  If it’s something that people really like, we keep purchasing from that farm.  If it’s something unique, we might be able to incorporate it into our portfolio.  Basically, that’s the first criteria.  The second one is we want a variety of coffees.  Do we want a honey-process or a natural process to be able to provide a great experience to our clients?  Then, if it’s one of the farmers that we work with, we visit their farms and get samples from them, do a sample roast, and evaluate that coffee from them.  We really try to determine the great characteristics those coffees have and then from there, we can really develop our roasting curve so we can replicate every single time.  To do the roast, we roast at different temperatures with different variables to figure out which is the best way to roast that coffee.

Where can people try your coffee?

Mostly in the South bay in coffee shops and several restaurants that have our coffee.  We are working to launch a coffee trailer.  The idea is to have it where our business is but also to take it maybe within 50 miles around the bay area. 

Favorite coffee you’re roasting right now?

I really like the Ethiopia Gotiti that we used for the Good Foods Award.  That one is clean and a really light roast.  For the medium roast, I would say one of my long-time favorites is the Costa Rica La Minita.  It’s a washed coffee, very clean and balanced.  It has a lot of caramel and chocolate notes, a little bit of citrus, so overall, it’s a very pleasant coffee.  I think it appeals to a lot of peoples’ palettes.  It has the flavor I’m trying to look for, it’s very familiar for me.

Anything else you would like us to know?

This is a woman-owned business, and it’s from Latin America.  Being from Latin America, the approach to coffee is with respect and has different ties and connections that I want people to feel when they talk to me or try our coffees.  I want people to realize and value the effort farmers put into this beyond how many points a coffee has or how trendy a company is.  It’s really who is behind this project that everybody loves.

Tico Coffee will be pulling shots at our Expo booth on Saturday, April 21 from 1-2 PM.  For more information about Tico Coffee, visit their website, Facebook, and Instagram pages.  

All images courtesy of Tico Coffee Roasters.

In the suburbs of Denver, Colorado sits Sonder Coffee, a bright and airy coffeehouse and roastery.  Opened by three friends, the space had been a project in the making for years prior to becoming a reality.  Wife and husband, Julia Minayeva and Ernest Minayev, along with their friend, Pop Nuntanavooth, traveled around Scandinavia in search of inspiration, learning about specialty coffee in the process.  After returning home, the trio started developing their business plan, combining Scandinavian influences, craft coffee, and adding their own unique attributes to the project.  The company opened with the goal of combining quality coffee, excellent customer service, and a beautiful, comfortable haven for their customers.

Interview has been edited and condensed for clarity. 

How did the three of you get together and decide to open Sonder?

Ernest: Me, my wife Julia, and Pop got together, because Pop and I previously did other businesses, and we were messing around with stocks.  We wanted to start something that was more people-driven, and we had a coffee shop in mind.  A year passed, and we came back and were like, “what happened to that idea?”.  We got sucked into life.  After that, we got together to do research and start a coffee shop.  We traveled to Scandinavia to learn a little more about coffee, and the concept is based off of the shops we were inspired by.  We got to see some of the starters of specialty coffee.

What is your approach to coffee?

Julia: Our philosophy with owning a coffee shop is to add value to peoples’ lives in small ways.  In the beginning, we wanted to have a hospitality-oriented shop, and it wasn’t until after our travels that we discovered craft coffee and fell in love with it.  Seeing the story behind craft coffee and how there’s so much intentionality behind it paired with our desire to serve customers in a way that’s intentional.  Our philosophy running the shop is three-fold: we emphasize the coffee quality and experience, the atmosphere and creating a place where people feel welcome and that they can be themselves, and customer service and building those relationships with people over time.  Inviting them into this crazy, complex world of coffee that we slowly, and still, are discovering ourselves.

That was such a beautiful description.

E: We would have never gotten there.  We just do the back-room stuff like roasting, she’s the one with customer-service management skills.

I think that’s the best part of owning a business; you all kind of complement each other.

J: Oh, for sure.  We have such different strengths and weaknesses.  It means a lot that we have each other, because we really couldn’t do it on our own. 

Pop: There’s no way that just one of us could have done everything. 

I know you talked a little bit about your Scandinavian inspiration, but how did you come up with the name and branding for Sonder?

J: The name itself took six months to find, and the logo took another six months to create.  We wanted [a word] that was unique, something that you couldn’t pinpoint in the English language, and something that communicated the deeper vision that we had.  We came across the name on the Dictionary of Obscure Words, and when we read it, it really hit home.  It made an impression on us, so we kept that in mind.  As we wrote our business plan and continued our vision, the word ‘sonder’ continued to stick out, and its meaning began to unravel in the context of our coffee vision.  With that, we were thinking of a logo.  It started with a tree and the idea that the branches, trunk, and roots all connected growing into something deeper.  That idea ultimately replenishes peoples’ lives whether that’s a coffee beverage or more profound things like connections and relationships, and it really symbolized life’s unfolding and interconnecting.  And then the butterfly was added on.  We like to say with the tree: Sonder, a story rooted timely growing.  And with the butterfly: a story fragile, ever-changing.  The definition of Sonder paired with that and kind of plays with the idea that everyone has a story, and as a coffeeshop, it’s really cool to be that crossroads where peoples’ stories can unravel and lives can change and interconnect.  The part of life that is changing versus the part of life that remains the same pairs around those concepts.

Can you tell me a little bit about some of your flavored drinks and the inspiration for those?

J: In the beginning, before we knew about craft coffee, we kind of just assumed we would buy flavored syrups.  When we started playing around in the kitchen with unique flavor profiles, we fell in love with that more and more.  When we look at our seasonal drinks and our mocktials, we just have fun making it, and we start off brainstorming flavors of the season.  We are really inspired by herbs, fruits, and spices that are in season and we try to pinpoint that to the feeling that the season gives.  We brainstorm with our team and then research recipes to see how we can make these flavors come to life.  We’re discovering by using real ingredients that we’re finding benefits to our bodies as well.  Rose, for example, is good for depression, your heart, and womens’ health.  It’s funny when customers tell us they feel better after drinking it, or when nutritionist customers tell us that rosemary is linked to concentration, and someone is finishing up homework at the shop.  It’s cool to see something we’re creating can help your body and mind as well. That plays a part in our Sonder vision too.  In the suburbs, people aren’t used to our unique drinks so they have a lot of fun with it, and it’s cool to see people actually liking something you just created.  

What has been the best part about owning your shop?

J: For me, it’s the relationship aspect, which is really funny, because I’m not a people-person.  Constantly being around people and managing takes a lot out of me, but it’s actually the most rewarding.  That also connects with seeing that word ‘sonder’ literally come to life every day as customers meet each other and become friends or two different customers come in and know each other by chance.  It’s funny seeing the word played out in our shop.  I’m realizing it’s really rewarding working with our team as well.  Having the opportunity to invest in other coffee and customer-oriented people, giving them opportunities to grow is really cool too.  Developing the relationships with our staff and customers is intrinsically rewarding even though it’s hard and takes a lot out of you. 

P: My parents own a couple of Thai restaurants, so I really enjoy just being in the service industry.  I grew up finding joy in serving people.

Ernest: For me, it’s probably the educational side.  Learning so much about coffee, there’s nowhere to stop growing in the industry and seeing people grow as well.  You hire someone and they have zero knowledge of coffee, and you just see them flourish.  Seeing them thrive in customer service is so awesome.  Our staff gets the vision and just go from there.

What is your favorite coffee you’re roasting right now?

Pob: My favorite at the moment is a natural Ethiopia Limu.  It’s has a very unique flavor-profile; it’s mild, very fruit-forward, very clean. 

Ernest: That’s probably my favorite as well, and it’s definitely our customers’ favorite.  We also have a washed Guji that’s pretty good as well.

Pop, Ernest, and Julia will be pulling shots at our Expo booth on Friday, April 20 from 12-1 PM.  For more information on Sonder Coffee, visit their website, Facebook, and Instagram.  To learn more about Sonder's business development, visit Julia's blog, Dream a Latte.

Photos courtesy of Sonder Coffee.