Our Story
At Topeca Coffee Roasters, we are diligently invested in understanding what makes coffee great. We started our journey in 1850 when Santiago Diaz-Caceras moved to El Salvador with his knowledge of coffee. He then decided to start a family of coffee growers on the slopes of the Santa Ana volcano that would last 6 generations later.
In 2001 the global coffee market began to crash. Margarita Lucia Diaz knew it was important to save her family’s coffee business, so she asked for help from her son Emilio Lopez and her son in law John Gaberino. They decided that in order for coffee to become a more sustainable business, they'd have to cut out all the "middlemen" and bring the product directly to the customer.
Over the course of the next several years they would:
- Establish their own wet and dry mills, so they could process and export their own coffee
- Purchase a second farm, Finca el Manzano, where our state-of-the-art mill sits today, and where we grow award winning coffees
- Open 2 roasting operations, one on the farm and one in Tulsa, OK
- Open their first retail cafe, making Topeca one of the first "Farm-to-Cafe" coffee companies in the world
Today we continue that vision of creating a sustainable supply chain for coffee, where everyone involved at every level can thrive. Though we face many challenges, our diligence never stops. We are constantly engaged in the conversation and try to implement practices that lead to better tomorrow, such as:
- Our commitment to purchasing only fully traceable coffees
- Down to the farm or cooperative level
- Ensuring fair pay for producers
- Our commitment to paying sustainable prices for quality coffee
- View our Transparency Report
- Our commitment to education
- We are actively involved in shaping industry and consumer education, volunteering our time and expertise as authorized trainers and curriculum creators within the Specialty Coffee Association.
- We actively provide opportunities for our employees to to grow and learn via training, certifications, and travel, as resources allow and milestones are met.
