Our Story
Our Values
Grown with Gratitude
The individuals harvesting your cherries wake up everyday, invigorated by what they do. This sense of passion and gratitude forms the core of every single bean you consume.
Roasted with Intention
A quality bean can go to waste if it’s not locally roasted or properly packaged. Cherri Cafe works directly with producers who know coffee on a deep level, so your beans maintain their true character.
Served with Grace
We live life with open hands. Whether it’s hospitality. Humility. Transparency. Or connection. All of these values will be brewing in every cup you pour.
Our Story
What makes Cherri Café unique?
- 100% focused on Central America
- Partnering directly with Coffee Producers – No Brokers, No Middlemen. We are investing time and resources directly in the communities where our coffee is grown and harvested
- Roasting and Packaging in the country of origin – our coffee producers are experts in everything coffee. From growing the beans to the roasting process, they know coffee the best. Additionally, by reducing many steps in the Supply Chain we can freshly roast and package our coffee in small batches in the country which allows us to control the process from seed to cup.
Central America and Our Founders
What is it about Central America that brought three families together to create this specialty coffee mission? Although each of the owners has their own unique story of what brought them together, the one commonality is their belief that “we are blessed to be a blessing.”
For one of the founders, it revolves around his passion for his home country, Panama. For another it is his love that grew from residing, working, and exploring the beauty of Latin America with his family. And the other comes from his passion for business and love of helping communities flourish. Plus, his oldest son was born in gorgeous Costa Rica.
Central America is teeming with people that are proud of their heritage with a desire to share their culture and natural resource of coffee. Behind every cup there is a family, a community, and a human being, who was created in God’s likeness that is to be celebrated.
There is great coffee produced around the world. We chose to begin our journey in Central America. We have much more to share with you regarding our mission and opportunities and that will come as we continue this journey together.
So what do a Hall of Fame baseball player, a College President and a Business Executive have in common? A passion to uplift communities and provide people the opportunity to grow and improve their lives.
Mariano Rivera
David Burton
David Kim
Our Partners
Panama
Meet Plinio and Daisy Ruiz
K&R Specialty Coffee - Boquete
Their adventure in coffee began many years ago. Plinio’s family business had always been coffee —from farming to exporting and roasting.
Since he practically grew up in it, he developed vast experience in this industry.
Daisy, on the other hand, never had coffee until she got married in 1990. She started to work in his family business, which she joined at the insistence of my father-in-law. Soon enough, she discovered the joys of this fascinating-but-full-of-challenges coffee world. At that time Panama was at the end of a difficult political period and this opened new opportunities for business.
During the time that they worked at the family business they gained invaluable knowledge and experience. Their business was born with the idea of offering specialty coffee, prepared with different types of processes, stored and packed to preserve quality.
From the moment the coffee is harvested, their lots of specialty coffees are carefully looked after. They are then classified, hand-picked and subsequently packed for shipment.
Their relationships with smallholder farmers is important to us. Since they started the business, they have focused on building and maintaining close relationships with smallholder producers of specialty coffees. This allows them to get to know their coffees and together they are able to develop processes and strategies to produce a cup that can be promoted abroad.
Maintaining quality control over these small batches gives they opportunity to find unique flavors and therefore tailor coffees to their customers. This is especially important for many small roasters who aspire to have very particular, high quality and complex cups. Their close relationship with these farmers allows them to pay fair prices to them all while offering a high-quality product to the consumer.
Guatemala
Meet Javier and Miguel. Friends, Business Partners and Coffee Experts.
Tehuya – Acatenango
In 1883 Don Ramon Godoy started his passionate adventure in coffee. He purchased Tehuya Farm (composed of Tehuya, Santa Clara and El Balsamo in the promising valley of Acatenango. He had to travel almost a day by horse in order to get from Antigua to Acatenango, so he left every week to spend several days at the farm coming back to rest and enjoy his family and recharge for food and clothing.
He oversaw the operation and brought different and new varieties to the area. This property has been passed down multiple generations and now, more than 139 years after, 4th generation Coffee Producers, Alfredo and Miguel oversee the operation innovating with new varieties and processes in order to get the most out of every lot on the farm.
Several things have remained the same after all these years of producing coffee; passion for high quality specialty coffee, harmony with the natural habitat, and recognizing the hard work of each and every one of the collaborators working in the farm. They have made it their mission to get the most out of every variety to offer the most complex flavors this area can offer and appeal to a wide range of
roasters and coffee connoisseurs.
They know that going directly to the roaster and consumer is the best way to secure traceability and deliver the highest level of quality. They are also always looking for ways to make coffee a sustainable business by adapting faster to the always changing market and climate conditions.
San Isidro Chacaya and Los Lirios – Atitlan
San Isidro Chacaya and Los Lirios are family-owned coffee plantations and have been producing some of the best coffees available for over 110 years.
The farms are located in the western highlands of Guatemala, right in the middle of the famous Traditional Atitlán region. San Isidro Chacayá stands between Volcan San Pedro and Lake Atitlán (also referred to as the most beautiful lake in the world!).
Los Lirios sits on the slopes of the mountain chain that go from the Lake Atitlan basin to the Pacific Ocean coast. The farms have a combined area of 180 hectares, of which, 46 are planted with coffee and the rest is an outstanding natural reserve. Their altitudes range between 1,555 bordering the lake to 2,100 in the mountains. Due to their topography, there are breathtaking views of the lake, the farms, the reserve and the three volcanoes that surround the plantation (Atitlán, San Pedro and Tolimán).
The quality of the coffee bean is their most valuable asset, positively influenced by the altitude, volcanic soils, different microclimates that can be found on the farms and the good agricultural practices they strictly follow. The proximity to the lake, volcanoes and mountains surrounding the farm are important factors that determine the microclimates. Their coffee is traditionally processed in the farm: handpicked, de-pulped, naturally double fermented, washed and shade dried.
Then it is milled on their own dry mill. This way they can guarantee the quality of our coffee. The whole process takes up to 30 days, the longer part is drying which takes up to 21 days. We do it this way to maintain the coffee bean integrity during the process.
At Chacaya coffee they have a ZERO-WASTE policy in all their production cycle. Pulp and wastewater are composted with worms to make organic fertilizer, reducing by 30% the use of chemicals on the soil and they don’t use herbicides nor pesticides on their plantation, helping preserve the coffee quality while they are taking care of the environment. They plant different varietals, but they are recognized as half of our farm is planted with Typica, which produces beautiful, long beans, with the famous “S” curved vein.
Teco Coffee House – Guatemala City
Teco Coffee House is the first café with a cupping laboratory and roastery in Guatemala. They are proud of their roots and know that Guatemala has one of the best coffees in the world.
Teco Echeverria is one of the co-founders and his passion for coffee led him to become a barista champion in Guatemala, to travel the world preparing coffee and learning new techniques.
His cofounder and partner, Salome Bridges, is also a coffee lover and has a passion to help transform the lives of people involved in the chain through small changes that improve quality and sustainability on the farm.
They are passionate about coffee and their vision is to show their country, its wealth, appreciate it for what it is and what it has, help others to expose and appreciate what they have and what Guatemala has to offer the world! Together, Teco and Salome, run a roastery that is serving the local community of Guatemala and providing services for Cherri Café.
