You order it almost without thinking, but do you know where that morning coffee at Meson comes from? Here's the story.
The smell of freshly brewed coffee. The espresso machine gleaming behind the register, almost a main character in its own right. You've seen it time and again. That coffee that tastes like only Meson Sandwiches comes packaged and ready to brew, every day, from a roaster in Hormigueros.
The Flavors of Puerto Rico
With some of the best sandwiches, breakfast served any time and Puerto Rican coffee, bringing the flavors of Puerto Rico for more than 50 years.
Order your favorite here!Lester and the roaster
Lester Marín has been roasting Meson Sandwiches coffee since 2007. He does it at CaffeTero Espresso, a specialty coffee farm and processing plant in the western town. Over nearly two decades of constant calls and visits, the two teams ended up working almost as one.
"It's become family," he says. "It's not just a relationship, it's an intention for things to go well for you." Between the CaffeTero team and Meson, the support runs both ways: a call or a visit whenever it's needed.
Marín oversees every batch, from the moment the bean enters the roaster to when it leaves for the stores.
The process starts in an Italian roaster that works the bean with indirect heat. After roasting, the bean rests in silos to release the carbon dioxide produced during roasting, a key step that allows the flavor to finish developing before packaging.
"We have complete visibility, from the seed to the cup," Marín explains.
Each order is roasted to the specifications of each store. The packaging could keep the coffee fresh for up to nine months. But in Hormigueros they don't wait that long: every bag ships within a week.
"Here we go pretty extreme," he admits. "People are drinking the freshest coffee possible."
Marín's work doesn't end at the roaster. The coffee enthusiast advises Meson's training team, the same one that trains the baristas who prepare drinks like cappuccinos, iced coffees, mochaccinos and cortaditos at restaurants around the Island.
The four Meson Sandwiches coffees
Under the Meson label, four distinct coffees are roasted, each with its own character, and one of them carries centuries of history.
Original. A blend of arabica beans. Served in most drinks.
Caracolillo. A limited production, one of the rarest to pass through the roaster.
Gran Reserva. Denomination of origin from Yauco, with centuries of coffee-growing tradition.
Decaf. Decaffeinated, without sacrificing flavor.
Liz Vázquez, who now works on the administrative side of the operation in Hormigueros, has watched Meson coffee grow from the inside. The Mayagüez native started packaging bags more than ten years ago. Then she learned to roast the bean.
Today she makes sure every order goes out as it should. "I feel proud to be part of this growth that Meson coffee has had in the Puerto Rican family," she tells us.
Meson coffee facts
☕️ A rare variety. Caracolillo appears in only 3 or 4 out of every 100 coffee harvests.
☕️ Made to order. Each Meson goes through 80 to 200 pounds of coffee a week, and every order is roasted for that specific store.
The Puerto Rican soul
For Lester, what moves him most isn't the numbers or the technique. It's standing quietly, watching people drink their coffee. "It's seeing the look of satisfaction," he says. "It's like a child, because you see the whole process from when it's born."
And Liz, who knows the coffee better than anyone, also knows how to pair it perfectly. For a good breakfast or lunch at Meson, she always orders the same thing: an espresso with a turkey sandwich.
The next time someone makes you a coffee at that machine you've seen a thousand times, you'll know where it comes from: from a roaster in Hormigueros, from the hands of Lester and Liz, and from the pride of caring for it as their own.
This content was translated with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
