It’s not every day that you get the opportunity to work with passionate people trying to enhance the lives of their community.  So, when you get it, you take it.  We’ve had the opportunity to become friends with the people at MadTree over the years since we both started our businesses. It was clear from the start that their care for the planet, people and the product were in line with our goals.  We started with some simple coffee additions to beer but over the years we’ve been able to watch the desire for quality coffee beers grow and have seen MadTree rise to the challenge.

Julio has been investing in his community in rural Guatemala for years and we’ve had the pleasure of coming alongside his work since before we even officially started Deeper Roots.  It started in the mid 2000s when we snuck coffee back in the U.S. for our friends to roast it for us. It has grown to be a stable brand for us expanding to over 17,000 roasted pounds this year.  

This past year the addition of Julio Cuy’s coffee, Guatemala La Armonia Hermosa, reached a record height of production volume since our relationship began with him in 2004.  The quality has also been getting better each year with more and more leadership being taken by Julio and his team.  When MadTree came to us asking for a quality coffee with a story, the fusion of these two relationships seemed to be a no brainer for us.  We began our relationship with Julio years ago and the thought of his story and product being used in a beer that tens of thousands of people would enjoy just seemed too good to be true. 

When visiting Julio in 2019 to talk about quality and strategy it was almost surreal to imagine his silhouette being added to a can of a quality beer brand and to have his story be told to many more people than we’re able to reach on a daily basis.  We told him about MadTree’s plan for his coffee in their beer and were able to share with him some about the relationships we have here in the States with other quality focused brands that have an interest in meaningful stories.  Needless to say, he was excited about MadTree’s vision and to have his coffee be used in such a great beer.

At their core, beer and coffee are agricultural.  Here’s to quality beer, quality coffee and the unseen people that are responsible for them being delicious before we even have the opportunity to make either of them drinkable.

– Adam Shaw, Director of Coffee at Deeper Roots Coffee