Villa Myriam

Well, we are starting our day with a cup of Joe from Villa Miriam and you should do it too. Owners David Certen and Juan Certen, join us in our Builders' Service kitchen. Hello, gentlemen. Hello. I love that last name, Certen. It makes me certain that this is definitely going to be a fantastic cup of coffee. And So I'd love to get a little background about this family business. Well, actually Villa Miriam is a plantation in Col Okay. This is my grandfather's plantation and it was built after my aunt passed away back in 1961. So it is in honor of my aunt that we've had the plantation. We're third generation growers and roasters. So we have the whole process from beginning to end. Isn'that so nice? And I'm sure you make your family so proud that you both have ventured into this entrepreneurial ship and have done this. And you actually bring the coffee from your grandfather's plantation. So we know we're getting the freshest that it goes, but I'm just really curious how the process works. So with the coffee, actually, we start with our pickers in the farm, selecting each bean at a time by hand. So each single bean is hand selected to ensure perfect quality. From there it goes to big pools of water where it gets washed. After that it goes into a deep pulper, a big machine that removes all the pulp, the skin of it. It goes into drying, which is sun-dried. We prefer sun-dried for just the quality. It's much better quality. Then from there, the husk gets removed through another machine. It gets packaged into burlaps, 70 kilo burlaps. And then from there it gets shipped to California where we store all of our coffee. And we only bring here to Albuquerque two weeks supply of coffee. That way we keep it as fresh as possible. I'm sitting here, I'm really intrigued. I'm sure viewers are too, because there's just such a deeper appreciation, understanding how specific and difficult and time-cons It makes everybody, I think, appreciate every sip just a little bit more. And the fact that it's also hand-roasted here in Albuquerque is very interesting to me. And I wanted to know just where exactly an Albuquerque is handled. So we do our roasting on our roasting facility, and that's at Montau00f1o in I-25. We do roasting to order, which is one of the big things as well. Once you start roasting the coffee, you bring some of those oils out. So you start spoiling the coffee. So you want to keep it as fresh as possible. Okay. And then the cafe itself, tell us about that, because people can come in and this is how they can get this experience. Yeah, they can come into our coffee shop. We have a coffee shop in the front of the roasting facility. And we're looking at it right now. Exactly. That's our coffee shop, right in the roasting facility. In the back is our warehouse where we do all the roasting. We love when people come by. Usually on Thursdays and Fridays, we're doing roasting. So if you come during the day, you can actually see the roasting process. We'll go through the entire process, talk to you about it, and get you to experience how we go through. Yeah. I mean, it'so much fun to watch. And I remember when we first talked about your business on our show, and Kenny, who was out there, he was saying, I was just telling He says, but my goodness, I think I'm going to become one because of the experience I had there. And I'm the same way. And I think that there'something really comforting about that smell of fresh roasting coffee. So people come in and they get that experience. And then they also get the great customer service with the two of you. So tell me a little bit about what you find people asking for the most and what you recommend the most. I'm curious. So definitely what people are used to is more of a darker roast. And what we're trying to tend to is go a lighter roast. Okay. So we display a lot of natural flavors, a lot of the fruitiness, a lot of caramel notes without that smokiness, that bitterness, that aftertaste that people sometimes are used to. So our biggest seller, of course, the one in the middle. So we try to go right in the middle. Some of the smokiness, some of the fruitiness, some of the flavors. One of the interesting things, though, is when we started the business, we didn't have a dark roast. We added the light roast. I mean, we added the dark roast later on. But our lightest roast has become people that actually started trying it. They have become true fanatics of it. And they don'they just don't even look for it any more than any other company. And I have to say, when you think about all of these corporate copy places that people are going to and spending a ton of money, it makes you almost wonder, why would you? When I mean, it just doesn't even make sense. So I'm so glad that you're here today and you're kind of bringing more awareness to those who don't know about And you're so passionate about what you do, obviously. Thank you. So we appreciate that. And I want to let our viewers know exactly where Villa Miriam is located so they can come on in. So we're at 2420 Midtown Place. That's by Montau00f1o and I-25. And we're open Monday through Saturday. Perfect. Well, guys, thank you so much. Are you going to be open on Labor Day by any chance? No. Okay, good to know. I just want to make sure people know. So don't go in on Labor Day. Check it out after or before. Thank And I think I might venture into my first real cup of coffee. Cool. Nice. Thank you. Thank you both so much.