Martin Mayorga, the youngest of four, was born in Guatemala and grew up in Managua, Nicaragua. At the height of the Nicaraguan revolution, the Mayorga family fled to Costa Rica and lived there for about one year before moving to Peru. Eventually they came to the U.S., living in Miami for some time before settling in the Washington, DC area.

During his years living in Latin America, Martin recognized major inequities between the rural farmers of Latin America, those who traded in the same products, and those who consumed them. Martin launched Mayorga Cigars in 1995 and subsequently began importing green coffee from Nicaragua to help small farmers have market opportunities for advancement.

Kerry Mayorga, whose mother is Bolivian and father American, was raised in the U.S. but traveled frequently to Bolivia as a child. Kerry and Martin met in 1997 as Kerry was working on her Masters degree in Biochemistry. Their values were so in line and their passion was so strong for helping small farmers, that they formally launched Mayorga Coffee within a year of meeting. With no seed money to launch the company, they used Kerry’s credit card, which had a limit of $1,000.

Martin and Kerry began roasting on a small 15 kilo roaster and between the two of them, they managed roasting, packaging, delivering, selling, and administrative tasks. Through their hard work, dedication to farmers, and focus on quality, they were able to grow the business to have extensive wholesale relationships as well as select retail locations.