Robbie Almendares, Andytown’s Lead Barista at the Roastery cafe, was diagnosed with Nodular Sclerosis Hodgkin’s Lymphoma earlier in 2020.
Hi There! Lauren here. Taking over Corazon’s blog post to talk about our amazing barista, Robbie.
Earlier this year, we learned that our Roastery Lead Barista, Robbie Almendares, was diagnosed with Nodular Sclerosis Hodgkin's Lymphoma. The Andytown community came together to donate to Robbie's GoFundMe and so far you all have raised almost $7,000 for Robbie. Robbie is beyond grateful for all of the support.
Since his diagnosis, Robbie has been living at home with his parents and receiving chemotherapy treatments. An already hard situation is amplified by COVID-19, as Robbie has to be extremely cautious to avoid exposure with his chemotherapy-weakened immune system.
We have been working closely with Robbie to put together a thoughtful fundraiser with a coffee. Our coffee menu was already full for the year, but we put our heads together to figure out how to support Robbie. The result was a serendipitous and challenging experience that was beneficial for both Robbie, and our coffee partners in Costa Rica.
I’ll let Corazon take it from here to tell you more about how this delicious coffee fundraiser came to fruition.
While we really only began working with the Urena Rojas family in 2019, our history with them actually started years before that, when Régulo Ureña and his son Ricardo came to the Bay Area to visit different roasteries. They stopped by Andytown when we still had all of our operations under one roof, where they learned about our roasting style and pulled some shots of espresso on our lever machine.
We reconnected in 2019 with the intention of growing our working relationship in the following years. Everything seemed to have been going smoothly at the beginning of 2020: harvest was fruitful and operations at Café Rivense del Chirripó was running right on schedule… and then we received the samples of the new harvest right when shelter in place was set into motion in the Bay Area.
Ripe red cherries ready to be picked in the Los Cipreses farm.
The day lockdown was announced, Andytown had to pivot the business overnight to make sure we could survive the shutdown. We had no idea how this would affect our coffee sales: how much would business slow down? Would we have an excess amount of coffee left in the warehouse, where the coffees would age and our storage fees would increase? Would we be able to keep our employees, pay our bills, or even still be a business at the end of it all? We had to learn how to operate at a different capacity to stay afloat. This meant having to put conversations on hold with some of our coffee partners, including Café Rivense. This wasn’t an easy decision to make. Roasteries around the world were in the same predicament, and as a result, coffee producers around the world were also having the shared experience of sitting on unsold coffees.
Coffees going through the honey process at Café Rivense Del Chirripó . Coffee cherries are pulped and dried with their mucilage still intact. “Honey” refers to the stickiness of the coffee as it continues to dry.
As we continued to navigate the following months, we did our best to curate a solid coffee menu within our limits. But in the back of our minds, we were always thinking about how we can maintain our relationships. We kept in touch with Café Rivense, updating one another on how things were going on both of our ends and just checking in. As time went on, the unsettling reality started to sink in: it seemed like we wouldn’t be able to buy coffee from them this year. However, we still tasted their coffee samples and shared our evaluations; it was the least we could do. There was also the tiny hope that if there was any possibility for us to purchase their coffee at some point this year, then we would jump on that opportunity as soon as we could.
Soon after we had cupped the coffee samples from Café Rivense, Robbie shared his devastating news with us. We wanted to help in any way we could, and when we put our heads together to brainstorm, we immediately thought about purchasing from Café Rivense’s and using their coffee to fundraise for Robbie!
The Costa Rica Black Honey Los Cipreses is a favorite for both staff and customers. When we sold out last year, we had customers asking when we would have it back on the menu. This exceptional coffee is sweet, silky, and incredibly dynamic. While we’ve set our flavor notes to mission fig, papaya, and maple syrup, we can also pick up flavors of strawberry and concord grape. It’s a very special coffee that we’re excited to share with you, but most importantly, we’re happy that we’re able to use it to support Robbie and our coffee partners.