I feel like I should have a compelling personal origin roots story here, but I was maybe eight-years-old when I realized I would not make any money growing coffee. How did your family connection to coffee guide you on your path to creating Onyx Coffee? This particular trip was somehow like a rite of passage. Joes in the dirt, and collecting tadpoles in the stream. When I was done, it was back to playing with my three busted up G.I. After he shared this with me, I asked if I could do payroll knowing the answer was no, but he said yes, and there I was receiving hand written time cards, counting cash and running payroll with a line of over 40 pickers waiting for me to pay them for the last 15 days of work. To this day, I can’t quite wrap my head around that given that I have a son that will be 11 this year. On this trip my dad shared how at my age he was already coming to the farm by himself to do payroll. But, occasionally it was just my dad and I. This particular trip stands out because we often went to Finca Vista Hermosa as a family with my sister and parents, and often had aunts, uncles, cousins and grandparents along as well. We picked ourselves up and I could tell my dad felt terrible, as any father would, but when we both realized we were fine we hopped back on and went on our way. We got some bruises and the motorcycle had few new dents. We hit a slippery rock and the back tire slipped sideways and we both went down. I was pretty tall for a half Guatemalan 11-year-old boy. As we climbed on one particularly steep stretch, I held on tight not wanting to fall back. We had left very early to ride, before the sun rose over the dew covered mountains, and before the midday sun dries things up and allows for the roads to get quite dusty. Aside from swerving around some pretty big potholes, there were many large rocks and boulders on the road. I was 11-years-old and was riding with my dad on his dirt bike on a winding paved road along a cliff for two hours before going up another hour and a half up a very bad dirt road to our farm. Is there one moment or memory in particular that stands out in your mind from those days?ĭefinitely. I’m so intrigued by your childhood memories helping out on your grandparent’s coffee farm. He’s humble and honest about his quest for quality, and all of the micro considerations one most make in order to run a business that thrives on a relationship to the place of your familial roots. Through a series of events, in which he followed his intuitions and interests, Martinez was pulled back to coffee, and started Onyx Coffee in 2007 to connect producers in Guatemala to roasters around the world. Despite this, Martinez did not simply take over the family business, instead choosing to seek out other avenues of employment that would allow him to learn and grow, and perhaps eventually, “afford” to work in the coffee world. He quite literally grew up with Guatemalan coffee in his veins, and was helping his family run their coffee farm in Huehuetenango at an age when many of us were just considering third grade. Edwin Martinez of Onyx Coffee is one of those people who makes you believe in the power of following your own path, rather than the one that may be initially prescribed to you.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |