Coffee is good for Certain brothers
Brothers from Colombia build lives, coffee business in Albuquerque
Brothers Juan and David Certain started their coffee business, Villa Myriam, inside a community kitchen in the South Valley with only one small portable roaster.
They now have a warehouse with two more roasters, their own coffee shop, 16 employees, a partnership with a former UFC fighter, several local clients and are making plans to expand in New Mexico and beyond.
But the brothers said one would have to rewind several decades to understand the true start of their business story.
The pair grew up near their grandfather’s coffee bean farm in their native country of Colombia. The farm is located in the southwest part of Colombia in Cauca. Their grandfather, Joaquin Esteban Certain, named the farm Villa Myriam after his daughter Myriam, who died unexpectedly when she was 16.
“She went to sleep and never woke up,” Juan said. “They weren’t sure about the cause of death.”
Their grandfather has passed away but the family still owns the farm and the brothers use it to grow coffee beans for their business. The beans are then imported, stored in a warehouse in Houston and shipped to Albuquerque weekly so the brothers can fill their orders.
Political refugees
Juan, David, their parents and their older brother came to the United States in 1999 as political refugees after David endured several kidnapping attempts at the hands of las guerrillas. David, who was 18 at the time, said kidnappings were a popular way for the guerrillas to extract money from local landowners to fund their cause. They would return the kidnapped family member and agree to stay off the family land in return for a monthly fee.
“They would ask us for what was called a vaccine,” David said. “They would say pay us this monthly fee and we will leave you alone.”
Families that did not pay the fee faced death. The Certains decided to flee.
“We went to Miami first and hated it,” David said. “It’s too big, people are not nice and traffic is terrible. We missed the
mountains.”
They knew someone in Albuquerque and decided to leave Miami for New Mexico. They came in the early 2000s and loved it almost immediately. David has gotten married and had two children and although Juan has not they both say their roots are now in Albuquerque.
“People here are really nice,” Juan said. “We feel like we fit in the community and we do. This is our home now.”
They still travel to Colombia twice a year for the harvest in May and either October or November. It was not complete culture shock to come to America, though. The brothers had been educated in what they say was an American-style school, learning English and even doing an exchange program in the United States.
But they said there was one American surprise — the quality of the coffee.
“But one thing that was a shock back then was the coffee,” Juan said. “It was so bad.”
Starting a business
They began working at local call centers. Juan, 37, went on to work for the state managing grants and David, 35, became a systems analyst, but the lure of being their own boss was too strong to ignore.
“We’ve always, since we were little, came up with ideas to make money,” Juan said. “We caught these lizards and we cut a hole in the lids to the glass container. We then made the containers pretty. We called it a zoo and would charge people to come and see the lizards.”
The lizards were granted their freedom at the end of each business day and a new batch was captured when the “zoo” reopened.
The brothers decided to return to what they knew — coffee. In 2010, they bought a seven-pound roaster and made use of the commercial kitchen at the South Valley Economic Development Center, which helps small businesses get going.
The brothers pounded the pavement trying to sell their coffee door to door at commercial businesses. Then they landed their first big account with Hotel Parq Central. Their next big clients were Los Poblanos and the Range Cafe restaurants.
They have teamed with MMA fighters Tait Fletcher and Keith Jardine and athlete Lacie Mackey, who started the Caveman Coffee Co. The brothers provide the coffee beans for the Caveman Coffee products that are sold around the city. Villa Myriam also has its own coffee shop, The Brew, at 311 Gold Ave. SW and recently released its speciality canned cold coffee Nitro Cold Brew.
The Certains said they have tried to follow the example set by their grandfather, who believed in helping the community. They pay their employees what they call a living wage of $10.10 an hour and are involved in community outreach programs.
“It’s so funny to think of our grandfather and how this all started in Colombia,” Juan said. “Now we’ve made all these connections and have this business.”