Diego Robelo on working with Round Hill.

Diego: It's been a good journey, I would say, because, you know, I met Round Hill at the moment where I was really learning and understanding what specialty coffee was and how to deal with roasters more directly. 

I remember from the start, they were very receptive to the sort of messages that I was trying to put across, about what I feel is valuable from the farm level at Aquiares. Over the years there's been this great continuous friendship, like seeing them in different parts of the world, and obviously hosting them in Aquiares. I guess that friendship led to this desire to work more closely, when you work with your friends it feels less like work and more fun. Plus there’s this safety that you have each other's best interests in mind. We have always had some sort of middleman, some sort of importer or mediator that was between us, which was fine but eventually, I think it was Tim that said, “No, man, just like send us, some samples, we want to be early at the game of choosing the coffees.”

Navigating Climate Chaos: Aquiares' Approach to Weather Challenges and Climate Change

And I was very glad they did that, because, you know, once you have a good friendship, and you know people really appreciate your work, then you start to find that you, you remember them once you're starting to send the first samples of the harvest. And I think that roasters sometimes don't see that. And of course, we're slammed with work in the farm during harvest but having those key relationships where you always think of it or they are texting you excited to try the fresh crop, well it really helps and works well for everyone.

Having these friendships, this consistent communication and seeing how well they portray our story and the collabs we've done, the nice packaging, the nice storytelling they do of Aquiares. It all just works to remind you, I’ve got to send these guys some really good samples really early in the year, and make sure they choose the best coffees because they're going to represent them well.

One other very interesting thing that maybe started happening a year ago in Copenhagen was meeting more of the extended team of Round Hill and getting to share some of the hype and excitement on the projects that we were doing here in the farm. It was great sharing with them because they really understand what we are trying to do and that as a farm, we are always trying to diversify and find new things to do and find new projects to engage on.

So, yeah, in conclusion, I think there's like a continuous alignment, maybe, of the business that we have and the business that they have, joining forces and finding synergies, and hopefully that progresses further.