Podcast Summary:
Drink Me A Story blends tales (today about Cafe Tinto), fiction, and real-world exploration. Here’s the rundown:
Epic Rippers: Stories that f*&k. Raw, adventure travel stories. These non-fiction audio journals offer life lessons and stirring thoughts.
Sips and Shorts: Stories and interviews about drinks from around the world that have shaped culture and society.
The Library: Dive into “The Coin Chronicles,” an exclusive fantasy audiobook series. Each episode reveals a chapter of this epic saga of Gods, humans, and the coin that rules them.
Episode 87 Notes: Juan Valdez’s Redemption: The Rise of Cafe Tinto in Colombia
Today we’re talking about sin and success, how the punishments we endure ultimately lead to the successes we find in life. We all make mistakes but it’s how we handle these screw ups that determines the course of our lives. In our story today, Juan knows this better than anyone else.
Summary of Podcast:
*Note – This is a summary of the full episode and containers spoilers. You can always listen to the podcast above.
The Struggles of Farming in 1807 Colombia
In the rugged Andes Mountains of Colombia in 1807, Juan Valdez knelt in a cramped wooden confessional, his bushy mustache tickling his nose. The tight space felt like a coffin, a dead space where he confronted his burdens. Life in the high-altitude grasslands and lush valleys was unforgiving, and Juan, a farmer, struggled to coax life from the rocky, inherited land that had failed his family for generations.
Cafe Tinto’s Origins: A Farmer’s Desperation
Juan wasn’t a miner chasing wealth in the dangerous mines carving into the mountains. He was a farmer, but the barren soil refused to yield enough to feed his wife and two children. Starvation haunted their home, his wife’s ribs starkly visible as they lay together at night. Desperate, Juan turned to theft—stealing chickens to keep his family alive. The world might call it a crime, but for Juan, it was survival, a step toward the legacy of Cafe Tinto.
Confession and Penance: Planting the Seeds of Cafe Tinto
Each theft led Juan back to the confessional, where he faced Father Francisco, the town’s only Jesuit missionary, through a thin mesh grate. His shame was heavy, but necessity left him no choice. After confessing, Francisco’s penance was always the same: plant trees. For two stolen chickens, Juan was tasked with planting five. These small bushes with glossy green leaves seemed useless—possibly toxic, with no apparent value. They took three to five years to flower, and Juan’s oldest plants, now four years old, had produced nothing. Digging into the rocky ground with his blunted shovel, Juan saw the task as a fitting punishment, unaware it would lead to the creation of Cafe Tinto.
The Hard Road to Cafe Tinto’s Prosperity
The journey home was long, along a winding dirt path that avoided the treacherous jungle filled with snakes and toxic plants. Lana, Juan’s mule, carried the stolen chickens in one saddlebag and the penance plants in the other. Juan’s sombrero and poncho shielded him from the sun, but nothing could shield him from his despair. He felt like a failure as a father, husband, and provider, the weight of shame heavier than any confession could lift.
The Backbreaking Work Behind Cafe Tinto
At home, under moonlight, Juan dug holes for the plants, his hands blistering and bleeding, his body aching with every strike of the shovel. As he planted, dark thoughts crept in—thoughts of throwing himself off the mountain to escape his hopeless existence. Yet, Juan was no coward. Too proud to die, too burdened to truly live, he pressed on, driven by duty to his family, unknowingly laying the foundation for Cafe Tinto.
The Birth of Cafe Tinto: From Penance to Coffee
This cycle of stealing, confessing, and planting felt endless. Juan feared he might one day have to sell or slaughter Lana for food. But he persisted, planting in straight lines, keeping the trees alive even as he struggled to sustain himself and his family. A year later, redemption arrived. The first trees, now five years old, sprouted small white flowers that gave way to bright red cherries. More trees followed suit. Juan harvested the cherries, soaked them to remove the red shell, and extracted the pits—each containing two small beans. He dried and roasted them, discovering the coffee beans that would become Cafe Tinto.
Cafe Tinto’s Impact: Transforming a Region
Those beans transformed Juan’s life. His farm, once a barren failure, became a thriving coffee plantation. His family no longer went hungry. Juan’s hands, once bloodied, were now calloused from leading Lana through Colombian cities, her saddlebags filled with sacks stamped “100% Colombian Coffee.” He became Juan Valdez, an ambassador of Cafe Tinto, the iconic coffee drink that defined Colombia’s prosperity.
Why Cafe Tinto Matters Today
Juan’s story mirrors the struggles of many who feel trapped between survival and shame, too afraid to live fully yet too determined to give up. Like others who faced their own trials, Juan’s life could have been a tragedy. But he answered the call to become a better version of himself. Through perseverance and an unlikely penance, Juan turned punishment into prosperity, proving that even in the darkest moments, redemption is possible with Cafe Tinto as its legacy.