Marialy and Alejandro Escobar know what they’re talking about when it comes to coffee. Together, Marialy and Alejandro founded and now run the leading Single Origin Coffee company, Cervantes Coffee Roasters, in their home county of Fairfax, Virginia, USA. Years of working with small businesses both in Bolivia and the United States gave Marialy & Alejandro the inside knowledge they needed to make their dream of starting their own business a reality, and the couple joined MovingWorlds so that they could share what they’ve learned with other entrepreneurs on the same journey. Through the MovingWorlds guided matching process, Marialy & Alejandro partnered...

The mountain road is rocky and the Toyota pick-up leaves a trail of dust as we wind upwards. After nearly an hour of ascension we reach our destination: Ixconlaj.Located in HueHuetenango at about 1,970masl, Ixconlaj is a rural community where Mam, one of Guatemala’s indigenous languages, is principally spoken. The majority of Ixconlaj’s inhabitants are subsistence farmers who cultivate crops such as corn, plantain, legumes, and the most labor intensive of all—coffee.By the time we arrive the first round of coffee cherries have already been hand picked and depulped.  Here, the coffee seeds are in “reposo” or rather, a resting...

Allison loves to travel. When we interviewed her for the barista job, she mentioned it as an important part of her lifestyle and interests. This was great to hear for two unrelated reasons. One, as owners we also love to travel as well, and travel is a big part of our life, having our relatives and families spread out between South America and Europe. And second, most of our baristas have and have had that one common interest: travel. So just like Don Quixote of Cervantes, and Sancho Panza, they are ready and excited to get out there and explore...

Every time I travel to Central America I am reminded how this region is so important to our food supply in North America. We walk down the isles of Whole Foods, Giant or Kroger not even understanding all the work and effort it takes to grow the food we eat. Today I met Maria Lourdes during my trip here in Honduras. She is a single mother. She is farming 2 acres of land. One acre specialty banana and one acre of eggplant. Both are crops for export to the United States. Her farm is in a dry corridor of Western...

One of the most rewarding experiences in the last few years has been  establishing partnerships with local shops. In particular meeting with new business owners and get to see how they grow their ideas from plans to the grand opening.  Its been amazing to meet all these people and somehow be a part of their dream by supplying them with top quality single origin and artisan roasted coffee.  When we first went into the coffee business, we were told that public relations and customer service would be key to our success. And we have to say we have discovered that...

Marialy Justiniano President and Owner Cervantes Coffee Roasters November 6 to 12, 2016 Cervantes Coffee is a specialty roaster serving the Washington DC Metro area with Single Origin Coffees from around the world since 2011. The company focuses on South and Central American origins where it has relationships with farmers and their organizations. The company is a woman owned and run business and hires youth and young professionals from Northern Virginia. Below is a trip report prepared by the owner upon her return sharing some of the important things about coffee production and farmer cooperatives.  Learnings at origin. The trip...

We got a hold off some old Italian espresso machines. FAEMAs, to be precise. So we've been working hard to clean them, descale them and rebuild them. Just like our coffee, we like to put a lot of effort on the things we do. We think we can reclaim these old machines to produce top quality espresso. In any case, you can be the judges, once we have them up and running.  These are the machines as we got them.    As we took the top off the machine, things looked pretty bad. The machines it appears had never been...

Join us and celebrate life and culture in downtown Georgetown this coming Saturday. We will be holding an Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony with our partners DAS Ethiopian Restaurant. Learn about new cultures and how coffee is enjoyed in other countries.