This is a love story.

When I talk about Ericka and her family, and bean voyage’s story with them, I feel as though I’m telling a love story. A love story that recounts the meeting of the strangers, building trust, sharing pains, and to grow to love one another wholeheartedly.

I remember the first day of meeting Ericka very clearly. The ray of sunshine that shone her house, and the warmth. Just like how they saw something in us, I felt something, something clear. And their hands reaching out to grab ours amidst all those that never took us seriously.

After meeting us, Ericka and family decided to process their coffee. For the first time in their lives, Ericka and her daughters were processing the coffee cherries that Ruben harvested. Every step of the way was taken with care and love. They floated the coffee cherries in a small tank, put cherries into the pulper one bucket at a time, and manually carried out all the steps. They put out small raised beds in the front yard of the house to dry the coffees in the sun. Caturra and Catuai varieties processed in what they called, Red honey, was their beginning. The first year, the family’s honey processed coffee scored 83 points on the Q-score. It was unbelievably clean and sweet, especially knowing that it was the family’s first time processing the coffee. In the second year, the clean cup and sweetness improved even more, and coffee when brewed reminded you of sweet silky tea. Bean Voyage continued chatting with Ericka and the family about moisture content, drying and storage methods as they improved their practices. In the third year of processing, they started exporting their coffee. Outside Bean Voyage’s immediate network (also due to the fact that BV went around telling EVERYONE how great their coffee is), the coffee was always sold out. Strictly following our principle of never putting all eggs in one basket, many buyers sought out Ericka’s coffee for purchase. Ericka and family also then, registered their family’s brand - Ericka and Family <Eyf> - in Costa Rica to start selling roasted coffee for national consumers.

In retrospect, this story reads as a linear growth. Yet, the first two years were the hardest. We didn’t know so much about the coffee industry and the world, and it was also their first year of ever processing their coffees. There were myriads of reasons why we would fail. And we faced all of these challenges together.

This is why this coffee in particular is very special to me, and bean voyage. Ericka’s honey coffee was the beginning of everything that we do at bean voyage. It is my honor to share this special coffee with you all through CeedSeries.

Letter from Sunghee Tark, CEO of bean voyage ( Women-Powered Coffee )