Airline captain Sam Sepúlveda and marketer Brandon Peña bought an abandoned coffee farm in Maricao, Puerto Rico, in 2014, and Sepúlveda had no coffee or agriculture experience. Hurricane Maria destroyed 97% of Hacienda Iluminada in 2017, and they replanted 50,000 trees, saving 5,000 from the old plantation.
The farm sits at 3,000 feet. The team picks cherries by hand and honey processes them, and some of that coffee is roasted for the shops. The first shop opened in a Maricao bed and breakfast in January 2017. At the end of 2018 they found a former bar on East 7th Street in the East Village.
