Coffee is one of the most favourite brewed drinks of all time. Prepared by roasting coffee beans, this drink is not only a student’s favourite to keep sleep away but an obsession for many people. Now, more than ever, the demand for this drink is increasing more and more. People are now also interested in where the coffee they drink is coming from.
Alumni of Northeastern University, Miriam Morales, who is the owner of Recreo Coffee Shop, can answer this question. The beans used in Recreo are grown by Miriam’s parents themselves in the farm that the family-owns in Jinotega, Nicaragua. That is where Miriam started importing coffee from to bring to the farmers markets and other kinds of businesses. She is the owner of two such shops, in West Roxbury and City Hall adds a very personal touch to the coffee she serves as it all only comes from her family farm.
“I opened my cafe with the intent of creating a community space,” she said. “They call us the living room of West Roxbury, and since opening our new location in Boston City Hall, people tell us the building’s become a more welcoming space.”
The functioning of the coffee shop is not only in a very social manner but also in environmentally friendly and sustainable ways. The earnings from the coffee shops are all for the benefit of others- funding health clinic, a school for children, and a technical school for adults at the farm in Jinotega itself.
Solar panels, water recycling and fair pay to the workers is the method that led to Morales’s parents earn certification by the Rainforest Alliance, a non-profit conservation organisation that works in 76 countries to recognize the farmers’ efforts towards sustainable agricultural practices and more.
The 1990 batch graduate with a degree in engineering says that “Other coffee shops may sell single-origin coffee, but they get it from an importer. With us, it’s truly farm to cup. My parents and my brother are sending me the coffee directly and then we roast it in house.”
From farm to cup, it is a very personal experience for both the cafe as well as the visitors which normally cannot be found in other coffee shops as they import coffee whereas Recreo grows its own coffee.
Disha Mazumder