Serving People Serving Coffee Since 2005
Issue link: http://baristamagazine.epubxp.com/i/609699
"My family has been in the coffee business since for- ever," Rebecca says. Her great grandfather founded the farm in 1931 after saving money working as a laborer on other farms in the region. "I remember walking and going everywhere with my dad in the farm and outside of the farm," she says. "I followed him everywhere." She speaks lovingly of her early life in the island's mountains. "I grew up in a beautiful place in the farm, surrounded by coffee trees, by the smell, the nature, the fresh air," she says, and then quickly adds, "And with the particular smell during the crop." It's like she's already calculating when to harvest the coffee in the memory. "I have the smell of the coffee very deep in my soul," she continues. "My favorite is the flowering. Walking through the farm is one of the most amazing experiences some- one can have, seeing all the trees dressed in white [flowering] is beautiful. You can feel you're in paradise." Drinking coffee on the farm was done in the tradi- tional way: "It was prepared with a filter made of fabric," Rebecca says, "then adding the water boiling from the stove." Coffee with sweets at her grandmother's house was a special treat. "Coffee was considered an adult beverage, so to drink coffee with adults was a privilege." The eldest of four siblings, all of whom have worked alongside her on the farm in some way, Rebecca remains close to her family today. "We are a very simple family," she says. "We love to cook; we love to party. We love to have breakfast all together every time we can. We love to have our coffee together and talk about how good it is." Still, she was such an inquisitive girl that though she loved life on the farm, she wanted to see what else was out there in the world. "I said to myself, 'I don't want to work in this,'" she recalls. "It is too hard, and I wanted to do something different, so as soon as I finished high school, I went to college to study science. I wanted to go far from the farm, not because I had bad experiences, just because at 17 years old, you need another panorama." She started working in pharmaceuticals after college, and spent six years in the industry. Working all day inside left her feeling cold, and she soon found herself back on the farm with her father, asking him for a job. "He looked at me and said to me, 'Are you crazy?' I said, 'Yes, maybe I am, but give me a chance. I need to try something else.'" A few days later, he invited her to join him in Seattle at the Specialty Coffee Association of America's annual exhibition in 2005. "I didn't have any idea of what he was talking about," she says. "But I accepted the invitation. As soon as I got inside that place, I felt surprised because I never imagined that cof- fee could be this huge. And it was in this moment when I realized what type of job I wanted to do for a living." Certainly a cornerstone to Rebecca's life in coffee has been her father, even before that invitation to Seattle. Rebecca had been working with and observ- ing Roberto on the farm her entire life. "My dad is a very strong and determined person," she says. "He has dedicated all of his life to this business, and at the moment, I don't know anyone more passionate for cof- fee than him." Roberto's story is really a continuation of the fam- ily's. "He grew up with his grandfather's dream in his mind," Rebecca explains, "to produce quality coffee from Jayuya to sell all around the world." In his efforts to produce higher-scoring coffees, Roberto experimented endlessly. He planted different varieties, tried higher elevations, grew some in the shade and some in the sun, and whatever else he thought might work until finally, he started producing some exceptional microlots, which the Atienzas began to sell as the Hacienda San Pedro brand. "This was the moment when we saw the big possibilities," Rebecca says. "We packed the coffee manually in crystal jars with yellow labels. We would sell the jars at local festivals, small events, and of course to the family and friends." Once upon a time, Puerto Rico was one of the world's major coffee producers. Over the years, how- ever, its production has plummeted. Its status as a U.S. Commonwealth has meant that production costs have continued to escalate even as coffee prices remain static. "We don't have enough people to work," Rebecca says, a common complaint on the island. "No matter that we pay the minimum federal salary of $7.25 per hour since we have to follow all the American laws. This is also why coffee from Puerto Rico is too expensive, and this is why many people are giving up on their farms." Another milestone in the history of Puerto Rican cof- fee is Hurricane George, which slammed into the island in 1998, bringing with it tremendous winds and floods that wiped out huge swaths of coffee cultivation. Many farmers lost everything, and have not yet returned to the land nearly two decades later. "It's sad that at this time there is less and less coffee growing in the country," Rebecca says. Those farmers who remain have looked