Bill and I traveled to San Juan to interview Omar Torres, the founder of Gustos Coffee Company. The Rainforest Inn serves Chupacabra blend from Gustos Coffee Company every morning in the form of cappuccinos, specialty lavender iced lattes, and more.

Omar gave us a tour of the Gustos’ coffee factory and barista training school.

We started off in the barista training rooms. Gustos offers barista training classes that teach foundational, intermediate and brewing skills. The company also hosts workshops that cover topics like espresso, milk texturing and latte art. The below photos are of the classroom where the learning happens:

Then, we toured the factory. Gustos sells select single origin coffees from local Puerto Rican farms in Yauco, Adjuntas and Las Marías. It was so cool to see so much coffee getting roasted and packed into bags. It takes a lot of work to get all the way from the farm to our cups!

Our final stop after the interview was ordering some coffee and pastries at the coffee shop! We both ordered cappuccinos, Bill got a blueberry cake and a wrap, and I got a strawberry cake. The coffee, the same chupacabra blend the Rainforest Inn serves to guests in the morning, was so sweet and the desserts were delicious.

To hear our full interview with Omar, make sure you listen to our podcast available on Spotify, Apple Music and Google Play.