NEW CHAPTER
There have been many significant changes in my life and thus in the life of Maquina as a business since my diagnosis of kidney failure.
Some of you may remember that I was diagnosed with kidney failure and needed a kidney transplant as soon as possible. Thankfully, my incredible wife Letha was willing to donate her kidney, and, better yet, she was a match!
Due to my health situation, Maquina needed to change its business model. I gave up the wholesale business side because I physically could not do it anymore and could not afford to hire someone with my level of knowledge and expertise to do it for me, nor did I want to! Maquina is much more a passion project than a business. Always had been.
First bag of coffee purchased for Maquina in 2016, Ecuador Finca Las Tolas.
In addition to the business model changing, the economics of coffee have shifted dramatically, driven by a historic shift in the cost of green coffee in the C market. In the last 2-3 years, the C market has skyrocketed by 200-300%. Meaning, the base cost of specialty coffee has tripled in the last three years, resulting in fewer quality coffees available at much higher prices. These changes are fantastic for the producers, but have had a devastating effect on small specialty coffee roasters. A coffee that would have cost us, say, $3.50 a pound at minimum, would cost over $6, and then let’s not even talk about the tariffs! Sometimes up to 50% on top of that for Brazilian coffees - thanks, Trump! So a solid, tasty Brazilian coffee that costs us $2.75/lb with tariffs would be coming in at almost $6! Thankfully, Representative Ro Khanna from California has led the effort to eliminate coffee tariffs, but they had a significant negative impact on an already morphing business.
I had a successful transplant, thank goodness, and we received so much help and support from friends and family and community, and we are both incredibly grateful. However, the transplant was only the first part of a long journey in recovery. I will be focusing on my health for a while here, which means I cannot focus on Maquina as a small business. I don’t have the physical capacity to run the business the way it was meant to be run, and it will be a long while before I would be able to focus on it the way I always dreamt of.
One of my favorite experiences in life was visiting producers on their land, like Finca Las Flores in Honduras.
I am also blessed to have had a job with Bellwether Coffee for the last ten years, which has supported me financially and provided me with much-needed health insurance. In this country, there is a health insurance crisis, and for a transplant recipient, health insurance will define my quality of life. Maquina is not in a place where it can support that, and this is just the reality.
I have learned so much about you, about myself, and about the incredible power of coffee and community. I will always be in love with the incredible coffees produced by special people, meticulously cared for by very innovative and knowledgeable producers. There is such a deep sadness in not being able to take a coffee from green to roasted in a beautiful retail bag - and yet I am forever grateful for having had this opportunity and experience.
Roasting will forever be one of my deepest loves.
Maquina will stop roasting and shipping coffees as of December 5th. So please be sure to grab your bags now. As for subscribers, I will be cancelling all subscriptions charged after December 5th. We will ship out all December subs in the first week, and those folks with biweekly subscriptions will receive two bags in the first week of December. It has been an incredible honor and pleasure to roast coffees for you, and I will be forever grateful. This chapter of my life is now closed, and it nourished and cared for me up until this point. 2025 was a hell of a year, and I hope next year brings brighter, more loving things for everyone. We need a fucking break!
Please feel free to keep in touch. Sending you all love and well wishes forever.
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