Late on the release of this episode but I wanted to interview a friend of ours that we met during our trip to Colombia last year. Juan Diego Zuluaga is the quality control expert at our coffee partners at Cafe Tio Conejo. We met him for the first time on their farm and my family bonded with him greatly and my son gave him the name "Juan Bagel" because of how my son pronounces "Diego".

June is Pride Month and from speaking with Juan, he couldn't wait to experience it for the first time because he knew there was a good chance he would be in New York during Pride. Juan told me his story of how it was like coming out as a homosexual man and how he struggled with it early on in his childhood. His story really intrigued my family because we heard the cultural differences in what was accepted in Colombia and what was accepted in the United States, New York specifically.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 canceled all large events across the country and this meant no Pride march down the streets of New York City. Before strict quarantining started, Juan came by our coffee shop often to chat about coffee and other random topics. He's always good company. He was quite disappointed with the cancellation of the Pride march but was able to find other ways to celebrate.

In this episode, Juan Diego tells us his story of growing up in Colombia and how he got involved in the coffee industry. He speaks about how he dealt with the mixed feelings of what it was like to be gay and how his family handled it. Then we go into what it's like being stuck in New York City during COVID and also what he has planned in the upcoming future. We hope you enjoy this episode.

To read more about this episode, visit the episode description: Black 6 Coffee Trading Co.

Episode 4: FDNY EMT Marc Krokowski

Coffee Chronicles: Stories Over CoffeeBy Joseph ZoletaJul 06, 2020