by Linda Castillo
Modern Latina caught up with Mariana Faerron Gutierrez, otherwise known as ‘The Coffee Lady’. Mariana is transforming the way we view a cup of coffee with her business Tico Coffee Roasters. Growing up in Costa Rica, coffee was deeply rooted in her childhood and heritage. Coffee time was an oasis in a busy workday and she wants to share this unique experience with her customers.
Mariana talks about how she started her business within 2 years of relocating to the US from learning how to live in the US to learning everything about the business.
What made you interested in starting your own coffee and tea business?
It was a combination of passion and a necessity. I grew up in a small family in the Central Valley in Costa Rica, surrounded by coffee plantations. It was a joy to play there, to see the coffee pickers and the trucks full of the red cherries and to experience the delicious smell of the coffee flowers when they bloom with the first rain in April.
I have been drinking coffee all my life. When I was a little girl I used to wake my mom early on the weekends, so she can brew me some coffee! (She wanted to sleep in!) It is part of our culture, it helps us relate, share, and reconnect. Coffee time is really an oasis in a busy workday; we pause and deeply enjoy this delicious drink.
I love nature and always wanted to follow a career that allows me to be in contact and working with nature and at the same time make a contribution to sustainability. I studied Agricultural Economics at the University of Costa Rica and worked with coffee farmers from whom I learned a lot and also learned to respect and admire the dedication they put into growing this crop. I developed very nice friendships.
When I moved to the US, I was missing that connection, the pausing and enjoyment that happens in the neighborhoods or coffee houses. But what really struck me was the taste! I was missing that great cup of coffee. I visited many independent coffee shops looking for a better coffee and it was hard to find in the South Bay. I even tried to order more cappuccinos and lattes, but even that did not get me the taste I of the coffee from my home country.
Then I said to myself, if I’m bringing coffee from Costa Rica to drink at home why don’t I bring coffee to share with everybody? I started to research how to import roasted coffee, green coffee beans, about equipment and so on. After that I knew I wanted to create beautiful flavors. So I chose to roast the coffee myself. I started with only the best. I buy only specialty coffees which means they have 85 points and higher (out of a scale from 0 to 100 points – like in wine, coffees have scores and different qualities). I buy also only micro lots, which is a coffee coming from a specific part of a farm, region and country.
I started very small, just selling online, selling to some friends and friends of friends. Everybody who tried the product really loved it, and as I moved forward I kept learning even more about the industry and the market in the US. Two years ago, I really wanted to start supplying to restaurants because I really wanted to make outstanding coffee available to many different places and really provide a unique experience to the end consumer. Then I rented a bigger warehouse so I could really scale and started to supply coffee to several restaurants, cafes and small offices in the Bay Area.
The restaurants loved the coffees and they had great feedback from their customers. The restaurants asked if I also had teas. I realized, I could be a partner for their specialty drinks and provide both products with great quality, help them with training, dessert pairing and have full transparency and traceability so they know where the products are coming from.
For the teas, I also did a lot of research and tasted many of them. I look for gadgets to steep and serve them. After a while a found the ones that I really liked; they are loose leaf teas that range from the traditional black, green and white tea to other more exotic, some fruit and herbal teas as well. Loose leaf guarantee a better quality and all flavors and aromas come from the real spices, fruit pieces and flowers.
In this way, Tico Coffee Roasters is a boutique company that specializes in unique and exclusive coffees and the finest teas from around the world. Coffees are hand roasted in small batches and the teas are carefully curated to guaranteeing product freshness and consistency. Our goal is to provide a truly unique experience.
What inspired the name Tico Coffee Roasters?
Tico is a nickname for Costa Rican. I wanted a name that resembles my origin, my country and all the beauty and resources it has. I want to share with people where I come from, share my culture and heritage.
How are your coffees and teas sustainable?
I have been very fortunate with the way I started Tico Coffee Roasters. Since day one we have been buying directly from the farmers. There is not middle man, cooperate or any person or entity intervening in the negotiation. We go every year to visit the farms and we can see how they grow the coffee, talk with them about the sustainable practices they use, we can see if the reuse resources at the farm level and also if they are incorporating new technologies that will help them reduce resources like electricity or water. We also provide them with new ideas and help improve their practices, so they also can get better results in their products and with that improve their lives and their communities.
The coffees and teas that we buy are shade grown, the pulp from the coffee and other organic by products from the farm are used to produce organic compost, there is a lot of manual labor, running, and maintenance of the plantation, which allows the plants to grow healthier. The farms that we buy from have shade and additional products from fruit trees and some blooming trees which support a varied and healthy ecosystem with different birds, insects, some small animals allowing the plantation to be strong and more able to fight possible pest or diseases. Many of them are certified organic.
What do you think makes a good coffee? Do you have a favorite product?
A good coffee is really an art. All starts at the farm with the producers taking care of the plants, having good practices and having a meticulous selection of the harvest and the qualities. Some people think that if the coffee is certified fair trade, organic or has any other seal it means is good, but it is not a guarantee. A coffee can be organic but the selection and quality can be really poor and you will definitely taste that in the cup.
In the same way, I can buy excellent green coffee beans, but if I don’t have the knowledge and the dedication to find the perfect roast for that coffee, a roast that will enhance the taste and nuances of that bean and origin, then those beautiful coffee beans are worth nothing. We have focused to roast our coffee to medium or medium light so we can highlight and maintain the original flavors of the coffee bean and the origin. A dark roast will burn the beans and its sugars, giving it a charcoal and bitter taste.
And finally to make a good cup of coffee you should use a fresh roasted coffee (not older than a month or two) and grind it fresh and evenly matching the brewing method. Fresh ground coffee will make all the difference in the cup.
What were some of the challenges you encountered starting and running your business? How did you overcome those challenges?
Ha! There have been several on the way! One of the first things is that I chose to start my business after 2 years of relocating to the US. I had to learn everything referring to business and at the same time learn how to live here. The personal and business adaptation happened at the same time, which made the process interesting on its own way.
I learned to be comfortable hearing “no” often, hearing people questioning what I do. Being a woman and a Latina it kind of was a challenge because of stereotypes but today it makes me different in the coffee industry and also in the way I’m doing business in the Bay Area.
I chose to learn from successful people, expose myself to different experiences and groups of people, research, read, and practice. I am a resilient and determined person and despite the challenges and the down moments I knew inside me I could continue even when I didn’t see light at the end of the tunnel. I learned to be patient too and to calculate a “little” more time for some things to happen. Pretty much all the time it takes longer and costs you more money than the budget you had. I hear this story over and over again.
What advice would you give to an inspiring entrepreneur who is worried about taking the leap to start their own business?
I would tell them that if they have the opportunity and they are really passionate about what they do, if they feel deep inside that what they want is going to make a positive impact, then they should go for it. I would tell them also to be patient and have love and compassion for themselves. Being an entrepreneur is not easy and requires a lot of sacrifices but here is where your passion has to be big and strong so it will keep you going despite the bad moments that will happen.
Also, it is good to find a mentor in their industry that they are trying to enter and who is very good with the skills they are trying to improve. Someone who they can trust but also someone who can challenge them to be better every time and help them to deliver better results with each step.♦
You can find a selection of Tico Coffee Roasters’ coffees and teas at several specialty food stores including Gene’s Fine Foods in Saratoga, Zanotto’s in Willow Glen, and The Willows Market in Menlo Park. Also, various restaurants, wine bars, cafes in Campbell, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, Saratoga, Palo Alto and other places in the Bay Area serve their products.
Tico Coffee Roasters also has some workshops and presentations about coffee and tea, like processing, origins, brewing methods, coffee cupping, coffee and tea tastings. They are open to the public so everybody can come to learn and have fun. To learn more visit www.ticoroasters.com or follow them at:
- www.facebook.com/ticoroasters
- www.twitter.com/ticoroasters
- www.instagram.com/ticoroasters
- www.pinterest.com/ticoroasters
Note: All images were provided by Tico Coffee Roasters.
Linda Castillo is the Founder and Executive Editor of http://www.modernlatina.com/. She writes on topics that empower and inspire Latinas including art, motherhood, green living, culture, travel, and issues transforming the Latino community. Linda has earned a B.S. in Business and a M.S. in Mass Communications from San Jose State University.