By Special Guest “One Bigg Islander” Matt Corbeil
I am honored and inspired. Words can’t really describe this past week and I’m not a great writer or spotlight guy, but here goes.
My trip to Nicaragua to the El Recreo Coffee Estate was powerful, exciting and fun! I almost didn’t go, but am so happy I did and grateful for the opportunity!
I’ve loved coffee for as long as I can remember and I’ve mused at how cool it would be to see the coffee trade and process, but it was always about trying to find a prefect cup of coffee for me. As we traveled to the farm I thought I knew what I was going there for, but I think I was completely wrong. Biggby can buy coffee from just about anywhere and anyone, but that’s not what Bob has set out to do. He’s set out to find people that are changing their worlds around them.
El Recreo owners Carlos and Leanna have a family of workers that have been with them through generations, watched children grow up, graduate school and offered them scholarships to attend university. They absolutely refuse to let children work the farm and instead take care of schooling and day care. They offer technical training to farmers around them so they can create a successful life and great coffee. But that’s not close to everything or enough for them, ideas of furthering the lives around them are abound, and I know they will continue their success while delivering Biggby and others astonishingly great Rainforest Alliance certified coffee. Their daughter Miriam and her husband Hector are also an integral part of the process, operating coffee shops in Boston and helping to wholesale the farm’s coffee.
This family is certainly very special to the world and I want to be a part of it!
From Left to Right: Leana Ferry, Matt Corbeil and Miriam Morales.
The views were amazing, as was the coffee and experience, but I also met people that truly are building a better world and I believe that’s actually what this trip was all about. Thank you Bob and Michelle for such an experience.