Bitcoiners - Live From Bitcoin Beach

Is Bitcoin Backed by Anything? How a Coffee Farm in El Salvador Proved Peter Schiff Wrong

• Mike Peterson

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Can Bitcoin save traditional farming from total collapse? El Salvador's Cherito (@CheritoCafe) de-financialized his supply chain, uses a Bitcoin circular economy to bypass banks, and runs nodes inside his coffee lab! 

In this episode, we sit down with Jorge, globally recognized in the community as Cherito, to dissect how legacy financial institutions manipulate commodity pricing to trap agricultural families in a perpetual cycle of poverty after leaving a lucrative technology and finance career in Seattle to return home to El Salvador. We took a look at how he is merging specialty coffee, agroecology, and a peer-to-peer Bitcoin standard to build an automated, zero-fiat circular economy from the ground up. 

Faced with total ruin from systemic economic decay and a devastating agricultural plague, Jorge realized that the only path to survival was to completely opt out of the generic commodity market by fundamentally restructuring how high-end specialty coffee is valued. Through the launch of the Bio Crop Project, he pioneered a localized framework that prioritizes biological resilience and ancestral agroecology over industrial chemicals and corporate-controlled seed monopolies, proving that wealth creation requires physical sacrifice, strategic crop diversification, and an unyielding commitment to local food independence.

To fully protect this model from predatory global inflation, Jorge took absolute control of his supply chain by vertically integrating everything from the volcanic soil to direct international exporting. He breaks down how shielding delicate bean profiles from corporate exploitation relies entirely on understanding how to leverage the distinct microclimate and high-altitude terroir of El Salvador's mountains. By taking his message directly to global academic panels and roaster guilds, he transformed a vulnerable, localized crop into a premium global asset capable of dictating its own fair valuation on international markets.

The structural revolution took place when this physical infrastructure collided with a digital, sound money standard right here in El Zonte. Jorge explains how finding the Bitcoin whitepaper provided the missing link for his business, allowing him to establish a completely self-sustaining circular economy that operates entirely outside the legacy banking grid. By anchoring his operations to a peer-to-peer electronic cash network, he successfully eliminated credit card processing traps, currency devaluation risks, and international wire delays, allowing his business to reallocate bank fees directly into the pockets of his local workers.

We wrap up the conversation inside his newly launched flagship facility, where the boundaries of a traditional business are being completely redrawn through onsite coffee roasting, active ASIC miners, and a live blockchain node visualizer. We also dive into the fascinating history of his beautifully restored 1974 GM Cherito truck, which is a rare piece of Salvadorean automotive engineering that embodies absolute scarcity. Finally, Jorge reveals the genius behind upcycling discarded fruit skins into a refreshing, antioxidant-rich beverage the community now proudly calls "Bitcoin Libre", proving that under a true proof-of-work standard, absolutely nothing goes to waste.


—Bitcoin Beach Team


Learn more about Cherito:
X: https://x.com/CheritoCafe
Web: https://www.cheritocafe.com/
IG: https://www.instagram.com/cheritocafe.sv


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Web: https://www.bitcoinbeach.com 


Browse through this quick guide to learn more about the episode:
00:00 Intro
01:25 Why do tech professionals quit fiat careers for El Salvador?
05:09 How does legacy financial structure impact farming stability?
09:01 How do you bypass banking intermediaries via a circular economy?
10:52 Why does physical proof of work require long-term capital?
17:09 How does El Salvador protect commodities from global inflation?
25:31 Why is specialty coffee cultivation analog proof of work?
32:00 What does the bitcoin supply cap teach us about scarcity?
45:24 How do you run a routing node and ASIC miners inside a business?
49:24 Why is Bitcoin Libre a direct challenge to central planning?

Live From Bitcoin Beach

Cherito:

The unexpected occurred, and it just changed forever. I mean, what, what we, what this country really wanted, which is like kind of have our human rights back, security, and just that gives you that hope. And when you have that hope, you feel, you feel that positive attitude in people. Everybody wants to become entrepreneurs, not only people from other countries, but Salvadorans like myself, they're coming to be here to build, and this is kind of what, what, what I, what the Salvador that I never imagined. In October of 2020 I went to New Orleans, and I saw an old French truck that had a little espresso bar, I was like, we got to convert mine, and because if we get locked down again, at least I'll be hanging in El Zonte in the Cherito, serving surfers in the community, but yeah, I always tell Bitcoiners, so there's 21 million Bitcoin, but there's only one Cherito, so talk about scarcity.

Mike Peterson:

Cherito, we finally got you on the podcast.

Cherito:

Yeah, thank you.

Mike Peterson:

Is this the first time?

Cherito:

Yeah,

Mike Peterson:

I know we've talked about it like 10 different times, and we finally made it happen. So excited to talk about coffee, El Salvador, Bitcoin, maybe not in that order, but I would love to have you kind of start off by giving people a little bit of your history here in El Salvador, and then how that led to you getting into the coffee space, and then we'll kind of bring in the Bitcoin story later.

Cherito:

No, actually, yeah. Thank you and your team for having us here, and on behalf of our Biocrop project by Tierra Bendita, and all the workers, you know, it's a privilege to be here and kind of share our journey to how we are living this wonderful times that are happening in the last couple years. So, yeah, my name is Jorge. I relocated to El South to El Salvador after living a part of my life, and in the US, and then in Europe, I decided to come back.

Mike Peterson:

Were you born in El Salvador?

Cherito:

I grew up here, and then during the Civil War, you know, we migrated.

Mike Peterson:

Yeah,

Cherito:

So then it was one of those transplants that thought that it would be a great opportunity to come back, except that I came back, I think a decade or two or so.

Mike Peterson:

No, hey, you were the forerunner, you were the one on the ones helping bring the change. So,

Cherito:

Yes, so I was, my last post was in the Pacific Northwest in Seattle, and I was working there in the technology sector, and, but every, every year I've, you know, even during college, my college years, independent of whether the country was safe or not, you know, El Salvador was always where the family or our roots are, were, and you know, I came back in the around like the late 2010 2011 timeframe, when kind of the government was going through a shift after after the civil war ended in 1992 there was,

Mike Peterson:

That when Funes came in,

Cherito:

That's when Funes came in, and,

Mike Peterson:

So he was like the first one from the left, yeah,

Cherito:

Yeah, the winds of change, we were kind of like waiting for those, and I think independent of what happened, the reality was that from 2010 to 2020 I think that decade was was was worse than even when we had a civil war, I think it was,

Mike Peterson:

I think they had more deaths each year than they did during the Civil War.

Cherito:

Yeah, and it was more, it was more, it was more dangerous, because at least during the Civil War there were kind of like standard operating procedures,

Mike Peterson:

And safe zones, you knew were safe, and ones that weren't, yeah,

Cherito:

Exactly, like I was just mentioning to Paco that you know about a lot of the small beach ranches here is where you know we used to come in on vacation. There was almost no electricity, so it was kind of like a nice family place where we even played cards at night time with candles, and so it was. It was nice to come here and come to El Zonte and all those beaches here and go back fresh ready for school. I was in the fourth, fifth grade back then, and so coming back in 2010 it was like, give me an opportunity to kind of focus on my energy, on you know, helping my father, the only son, and I have three older sisters. So it was a coffee is in our veins, and so this is where I thought that, you know,

Mike Peterson:

So your family had an existing coffee business.

Cherito:

Yes, and not just coffee agriculture in general, you know, we had some sugar cane, and, and so, yeah, it was like kind of a way for me to kind of come back and see what I could do, whether it was a consulting in my, in the tech sector, finance, mostly, or, but coffee was always a part of my idea, but for to live, it's almost impossible, because of how the commodity, the unfairness of how the commodity system being a financial instrument of financial markets and institutions. How one can actually live off that. So, but yeah, I kind of began to get more and more into the coffee, kind of kind of like a Sudoku. How I could try to live from something that is almost impossible. The reason why people are migrating from the rural zones is because El Salvador has always been traditionally an agrarian economy, and in the rural areas, there's no, there's not high unemployment, you can barely live from there, and lack of security was another obstacle. So, yeah. yeah, it was. It was a tough decade, and on top of that, you had a coffee rust disease, which decimated the coffee,

Mike Peterson:

specifically in this region, right?

Cherito:

I mean, overnight, I think. I think it was my welcoming to my first harvest. It decimated our crop from, like, from Mexico Delta Bolivia overnight, and it was one of those another obstacles,

Mike Peterson:

And it wasn't just the crop, right? It actually decimated the plants,

Cherito:

The disease itself, kind of especially the older population of of trees, the red bourbons, which is El Salvador, is very popular for, because of his great attributes, 2815 20 year trees were pretty much dying, so we had to kind of innovate, or see how we could, how we could bet on the long term on new varietals and new processes.

Mike Peterson:

So, hey guys, just a reminder, the best way to really understand how Bitcoin is impacting El Salvador and what's happening here is to get some boots on the ground and come visit, and of course, we're excited now to have locations both in El Zonte and Punta Mango, where we have guest homes there that you can rent, that everything can be done in Bitcoin, so we have the Bitcoin Beach Suites in El Zonte, and we have Punta Manga Villas in Punta Mango, and you can find all that on the Stay at Bitcoin Beach website. So, make sure that you check that out, and if you're planning on coming down, make sure you're staying at a place where Bitcoin is going to be welcomed, and that you'll be surrounded by other Bitcoiners.

Cherito:

Yeah, that was like my when I hit the ground running in reality, because you know, I came back here, there's kind of an economy that didn't have opportunities for somebody with my my my background coming from finance and technology, and so, but in the end, you know, it was about a, I took it as a deconstruction kind of period where I could come, and my father always told me that find yourself a job that you don't want to take a vacation from, so I coffee was it, except that, you know, how do I, how do we make it sustainable for not only for my family, but the workers, and everybody that we represent? And so, yeah, that was like kind of the task around 2015 We began to integrate vertically, become integrated as small and medium sized coffee producers and exporters. So that was our first,

Mike Peterson:

And what does that mean in that industry? Does that mean that you got into the roasting, and,

Cherito:

No, no, no, no. At that time, it was only specialty coffee, kind of getting away from the fiat system in this world, is getting away from the commodity, generic coffee, that

Mike Peterson:

The more having a specialty that you can get,

Cherito:

The market tells you, okay, one day it's $286 It dropped to $200 because of reasons that have nothing to do with your actual costs. So, how do we get away from this kind of focus on the quality? I think only 5% at that time of exporters were focused on specialty, everybody else was just exporting generic, and if you're in the prices went down a lot of bankruptcies, banks kept trying to bail out a lot of the sector, but you're pretty much putting all your heritage, all your land, and collateral as a collateral of a debt that you would now. Ever going to go into to see the end of the light of the tunnel, so I think we started doing it by little by little, and when I started traveling, kind of having engaging those first roasters, they sample the coffees, and they bet in the relationship, so it was very genuine to have those very first small roasters getting our having our coffee, so at that time we had to still sell the coffee to a miller and exporter, so they could make the bond, and then I focused on just getting a small other farms helping them scale and also improve their quality, and this is where, where our consortium was born, which is called the Bio Crop Project.

Mike Peterson:

Okay,

Cherito:

And the Bio Crop Project has at that time had

three elements:

one was to produce exceptional coffees, number two was to diversify, so we not only depended on on coffee itself, but also maybe other cultivars like cacao, honey, and other, depending on how their, how their land is, and what altitude, what would benefit each farmer, and also focus on food independence, so that way they would do it, corn, beans, and other fruit that would allow them to be independent, and the third pillar of this project is agricology, a lot of ancestral approach to farming, because if what we learned from the coffee rust disease was that we could not go ahead and just go and get donations for trees at that time. I think corporations were giving out all the seeds, and my father said, "Let's just go back to the drawing board and see how we use our ancestors' approach to farming, some people may call it biodynamic. My father called it ancestral, so this is where we surrounded ourselves by science. I think Odette Varella, she was one of our first employees. She's now at the head of the center, the Department of Agriculture.

Mike Peterson:

Oh, really?

Cherito:

So she just come back from Taiwan with a PhD. She spoke, she speaks Mandarin, English. So, for me, it was like my, my.. it was very, very important, because just like in many technology companies, where the CEOs surround themselves by talent, here I am, like, as a producer, but surrounding myself by technology scientific approach to farming, and also technical, because we also have, we had a very good agronomist who was, you know, allow us to change our, our model, but also help other small-scale neighbors in order to have a scale in volumes, so those were the three pillars, and how the Biocrop Project was born around 2017 By then we started, we became exporters ourselves,

Mike Peterson:

So you're exporting directly.

Cherito:

Yeah, so this is like where what I meant by becoming vertically integrated from farm to milling to to exporting and now the importers would would just distribute to our and roasters in Germany and the US, so that was like, you know,

Mike Peterson:

And is that pretty common in the business to do you ship the beans before they've been roasted and then they're they're roasted in the location that receives them,

Cherito:

Yeah. I mean, the model normally is that, that, that we're just condemned to being farmers, and they bring the truck, the millers, and then they export. They don't even want you learning about cupping and developing your sensorial skills. So, I think one time I invited you, and yeah, we did that cupping, yes, yeah, and this is kind of like the whole, the educational aspect of this business is that the more that you know about what you have the potential, the more you're able to kind of negotiate your own crop, and you dictate kind of where and to whom, and the pricing based on the quality, so it's, it was, now it's like a protocol that we have always with buyers, and and I'm also helping other small scale community that we work with, in order to kind of like make it transparent, so I think the blessing overall has been that, that, that we're able to, a lot of families, I mean, that we're thinking also about migrating, we were able to suck it up and, and continue, you know, in good times and in bad times, because, you know, in this, in this business, you have to see it in the long term. Five, six year horizon. People say, how's it going? Like, I just quit. I just came off a record harvest, but this year all of a sudden I know I'm going to drop by 50% because of the trees are like they're like a soccer team that sometimes you have a good defender that got injured and you have to replace with the rookie, so it's kind of, you're always gonna have those variables, and so it's, it's very, it's interesting.

Mike Peterson:

Growing up, we grew avocados, and you know, wasn't a huge amount, I think we had like 10 acres, and it was, but you'd have that same thing, like you'd have like a really good year, and then usually the next year would be a little soft, and yeah, kind of have that. Yeah,

Cherito:

Exactly. So, it's so, yeah, but as we started growing, I was kind of an ambassador of this project on behalf of it. Was originally six farms, then we were growing to 12 18, The more demand we were generating, the more harvest we were able to consolidate, and three different continents, Singapore, China, and on the Asian side, and then US being our main market, and Europe kind of like getting into there.

Mike Peterson:

Okay,

Cherito:

And when I say this, this is just like, as I mentioned, coffee is not something that you're really gonna become wealthy of, but it gives you life, you know, and this when at the end of the day, like our common denominators, to kind of work in the land and making it look, you know, look very feasible and very nice with that, you're kind of content, because this is kind of the tree that you, that you take care of, because it's going to provide you with the tortillas and all the basic needs that you need.

Mike Peterson:

Well, I know El Salvador has has kind of had to shift because they can't compete with the regions where they grow in kind of more flat land where it can be more mechanized, and so maybe explain a little bit about the two different types of coffee varieties, and how El Salvador has had to really kind of focus on the higher end.

Cherito:

Yeah, so precisely that. A lot of this families of coffee, you have Canifora, Robustas, well known in Brazil and Vietnam, those are in versus Arabica. El Salvador is mostly 100% Arabica. It's more, it's less resilient to diseases. It has a better cup quality,

Mike Peterson:

usually needs a higher altitude, right?

Cherito:

Yeah, higher altitude, shade grown as volcanic soil. The terror microclimate that El Salvador is well known for, and Brazil, it's like a kind of sugar cane, it's like farming sugar cane, because everything is mechanized. Honduras, which is also next to us, and Guatemala and Nicaragua, they also prepare themselves, I think, better than they, we have to give them credit for continuing to grow in this space, and when we harvest about 15 quintales, which is 100 pounds bags, they probably do four or five times that, so it's very hard to compete against that, so this is kind of where El Salvador, and a lot of producers who are very technical here, very professional, they do it's like a comparative and competitive advantage of nations, like what do we have, Pacamatas, Bourbon, and all this superior quality DNA, like how can we compete against that? No. What do we do? Just focus on specialty, which is more not the volume, large scales, but less focus on smaller contracts, and that's kind of like that. What the norm has been, not only with our project, but also other other producers, and this is where I think El Salvador, Panama, some places in Colombia and Ecuador are kind of focusing on the quality, and so, yes, and and I think that, and how the industry has established direct trade relationships with farmers, farmers are now like producers are now invited into a lot of this academic academic forums. I just came back from Berlin a week and a half ago, where I was invited to speak to our academia panel, it was called the Roaster Guild.

Mike Peterson:

And, yeah, and just, just for clarification, you're speaking in Berlin, Germany, because, yes, we talk about Berlin a lot here, because the Bitcoin community in Berlin, El Salvador.

Cherito:

So, yeah, so for me it was, I was surprised because it wasn't just like an array, a typical industry where you talk about the farm, and this, it was mostly a very academic approach. They were talking, the thing they were, they wanted me to speak about climate change and the relationship. Of the impact on prices, and so just speaking about all this, and bringing it to a specialty, followed by a cupping session, it was the best way to illustrate to them about kind of what what we're doing here in El Salvador versus other generic coffees that the 200 roasters who were there bring to the table, and

Mike Peterson:

So with with this new approach that you guys are bringing, is it possible for new entrants to come into the field? I know most of the people that grow coffee in El Salvador are people that has been in their family for years, they already have the land, so it's kind of for them, they don't have the upfront cost, and a lot of them just do it because they, it's their heritage, they love it, and they want to continue, even a lot of them that are losing money on it. Are you seeing the coffee business with these changes become a profitable business, or is it still a real struggle to get there for families?

Cherito:

I mean, creativity and persistence is key, I think, in the coffee, as in many industries, I mean, you really have to like hit the wall various times, you know, across maybe five to 10 years to kind of begin to see the surface, so but in the end is very rewarding in the sense of, you know, the time and the energy that you put into this. I think new entrants. I've met a few in Berlin. I'm speaking of a few farmers I met. There's a British guy that I know that purchased a farm in Harry, Las Cruces, in the Berlin area, I'm sure he's going to do well, because I mean, when, when you have that market and dynamics, and you know, you know who you're going to sell to,

Mike Peterson:

Yeah,

Cherito:

Maybe back home it's already, it helps too. Now, the off the other side is the fact that being a producer, it's like it's not overnight, I mean, as I mentioned, you have to see this, like maybe six years out, it can get very ugly, you just have to have that, that determination. In my case, by 2018 2019 I mean, even though we had very various obstacles, the one that affected me the most was the lack of security in El Salvador, worrying about you, worry about yourself and your family, but another thing is to also worry about your workers, and from them being able to run errands from one neighborhood to another.

Mike Peterson:

Well, I know, even you know, in the early 2000 10s, that area, they had big pushes against the gangs in the city, and a lot of them moved out into the rural areas, and that became some of the most dangerous places,

Cherito:

And I'm very grateful, in the sense that, you know, nothing really ever happened to me, I think it was more like they just kind of, it was like small, small, like a people, like sometimes we, they would come to us, you know, asking for a contribution very politely, and you know, you treat them like, like, like, you know, human beings, you know, oh, you're gonna have a kid here, let me give you five, let me, let me contribute to, to, to your well-being, but kind of, that's kind of like the, the, the approach, you know, I think that they wanted to, they wanted to be treated as human beings, you know, but, but it got to the point where, like, the media, everything was awful, I was, it was the first time I remember looking at opening my LinkedIn, I mean, updating my LinkedIn profile to see if I was like, all right, I guess I'm gonna have to find a job somewhere, or I go to New Zealand and become a roaster and ship myself the coffee, but it would be like giving up, and if I do that, it's like, you know, you know, but it was, it crossed my mind until the government took place in 2019 2020 and the unexpected occurred, and it just changed forever. I mean, what, what we, what this country really wanted, which is, I kind of have our human rights back, security when tourism came, and so it's with that I've met people from New Zealand coming here and tell me, mate, you're lucky to move because you would have been coming back with us to El Zonte, and so I think it's a, it's a great tale, because it's one of those, I still feel that it's surreal, because just the fact that we, that we can travel safely and at any time, it's just that it gives you that hope, and when you have that hope, you feel, you feel that positive attitude in people, everybody wants to become. Entrepreneurs, you people coming from elsewhere with skill sets that we don't have, so not only people from other countries, but Salvadorans like myself, yeah, they're coming to be here to build, and this is kind of what, what, what I, what the Salvador that I never imagined, so it's and, and Bitcoin, of course, coming to El Salvador just gave us that extra push two years later, and, and,

Mike Peterson:

Yeah, what was your first like exposure to to Bitcoin? Were you like in the Bitcoin space prior, prior to this, you know, coming from the tech and finance world, or was this when El Salvador adopted? Was that kind of something new for you?

Cherito:

Yeah, I tell people there were three calls that I had. I think many people.. the first one, Seattle.. like I thought it was like a video game. it didn't really connect with me by 2017 My father was like always watching on RT, I think it was Max and Stacy en Español.

Mike Peterson:

Oh, really? Your father was.

Cherito:

My father, because we were.. he was always like, I mean, he's very anti-corruption and justice, and this and everything, when episodes were on the banks and that in the financial terrorists, I mean, that got him excited, and then I would always go have coffee with him, to me, my, my, the best part of the day was coming around this time of the day, kind of like a sunset, a make coffee for them, and just talk about the day, and they're like, come, come watch, come watch my sister. You should learn, because they have, they talk about this stuff that you should. I'm like, I'm worried in my mind. I'm like, I can't. I'm worried, how the hell I'm gonna go pay the 15th and the end of the month. I'm like, running machine, some of the German buyers were came to El around like, like a circus guy trying to survive, and my dad is Salvador. We did the farm tours, and then we would stay here, and just very at ease, and so that was my second call, and I didn't. And then I had a neighbor who they had a place we trained the local barista girl, and we had espresso bar. here in El Zonte, and I was always wanting to come back and Then they called me, and they said, "Johr, you know they, the Bitcoin Beach people community wants to have a special ATM, open an espresso bar, because you know, there was no, no real ATM, I think it was late 2019 and there was no internet, and I like places to have a specialty coffee here, and there's tourism, and back then it was limited tourism, and, but it was bad coffee, and kind of to balance my life was to come back into the, thought, okay, the whole purpose of being at the farm three, four days a week, and then in the city, all that stress was just to come here and then kind of disconnect to connect, and I'm like, if we have anything other than surf videos and people talking to one another instead of being on their phones, that to me was making justice, and it was very philosophical. And then I saw all the good deeds and everything that you guys were doing and education and I think it was the first, the very first classes that were taken, and this, that's when I brought coffee, I would, I would come in the in the weekends and bring all the coffees for the for the cafe, and and then I said this is the third time and Bitcoin, and I will see the transaction, and then I said, this is this is the what I've been looking for, in the sense that I'm looking for genuine direct trade relationships.

Mike Peterson:

Yeah,

Cherito:

But I get paid 10 months later, and I get paid three cents for every cup of coffee when you kind of do a cascade model from farm to cup, but I'm getting paid 10 months later. Here it's like, and then you, I read the white paper, peer to peer electronic, and then it resonated on me. This is like what I've been preaching is direct trade coffee, and now this is my proof of work, my time and the energy. That when I'm drying the coffee, those are my.. and here in Spanish we say Oro, Oroverde, which is what I export, and then I said that's analog digital is sets because it's faster, and then when we roast it, people are enjoying it, and then the transaction is instantly.. and then I became.. I'm very passionate, if I, if I can replicate with this, and also pay for, learn, and also as I go, but also teach my workers, and teach them their communities. I think you know, we all go to heaven, because you're doing, you know, it's like, it's like Bukele is taking off his, the power that is given to him, and he's giving it back to the people, and when you see that, it's like, you know, it's there's hope for you, because you're able to embrace or not embrace.

Mike Peterson:

Yeah,

Cherito:

In the end, it's like that was kind of like, I think I skipped a lot, but I wanted to get to that point. Oro is the green, and then the roasted is the sets, and that's the digital, and that's when I, we decided to create the I remember Max and Stacy when they came, that was the first gift. I said, How can we honor this new medium of exchange opportunity that we have, and I said it's because people will say Bitcoin, you cannot touch, touch it, feel it, or smell it. I said, yes, you can, you can smell it now, because our labor is there. So it's that's kind of like, and is that

Mike Peterson:

Where the Satoshi

Cherito:

Coffee? Yes,

Mike Peterson:

Coffee came, like that's where it,

Cherito:

Yeah, I mean, after Bukele announced September, then we had La Bitcoin, and La Bitcoin, because already we already gone through lockdowns, the little espresso bar operated four and a half months.

Mike Peterson:

Yeah,

Cherito:

I only came once it opened, and just to pick up.

Mike Peterson:

Wasn't great timing for the opening.

Cherito:

I just came to pick up the espresso machines, and then I, we converted the Cherito truck, Cherito, which

Mike Peterson:

Give a little bit of history on that.

Cherito:

Yeah, so a lot to a lot of people like that do not know Cherito. Chero in El Salvadorian slang means buddy amigo chero, and cherito was a project by General Motors back in 1974 where they had a subsidiary called Fabrica Superior de Centro America, and believe it or not, in 1970 in the 1970s El Salvador produced, produced 600 units of these cheritos, it was called BTV,

Mike Peterson:

I didn't realize it was only 600 yeah.

Cherito:

It was all because that's that's how long the factory lasted.

Mike Peterson:

Okay,

Cherito:

Before the war and all the hostility. So it was Fabrica Superior de Centro America built 600 units, some of them were small pickup trucks, SUV, and in down in the historic district in downtown San Salvador, out to Palace, which is about two three blocks from the from the cathedral, that's that was the showroom.

Mike Peterson:

Okay,

Cherito:

And people,

Mike Peterson:

And were they were the Cherito's only produced in El Salvador?

Cherito:

Well, the cherito was here with that, with those specifics. I know what the mala had their own Cherito, but they call it, I think, compadre Nicaragua had their own version pinolero, but, but here it was called the cherito, because it resonates with the population, and it was a low-cost utility vehicle that I would cost back then, I think, 8000 colones to 10,000 which is probably like$1,000 I don't know, with inflation I would have to,

Mike Peterson:

Yeah,

Cherito:

Maybe it's up to$12,000 now, but, uh, but yeah, it was like not many people knew the story, especially millennials and younger people. So I thought when we closed here, I thought I would restore it, and

Mike Peterson:

Did you already have this vehicle, or did you?

Cherito:

No, no, no, I spotted one after eight, after many years of looking into one, and then I knew what I wanted to do, because when you travel in Europe, every in many cities, you always have like Citroen, French trucks, and then I, in October of 2020 I went to New Orleans, and I saw an old French truck that had a little espresso bar. I was like, we got to convert mine, and because if we get locked down again, at least I'll be hanging in El Zonte in the Cherito, serving surfers in the community. And so, yeah, I think that that's the kind of like,

Mike Peterson:

That has to be a real labor of love, keeping that thing running, because I'm assuming finding parts for it is impossible.

Cherito:

And coming to El Zonte, I remember for the first adopting Bitcoin conferences, it was especially those curves, it was, it was like Fred Flintstone driving, putting the brakes on, and then I forget. To put a seat belt on it, so it was one day I'll write a book, some great stories, but, uh, but yeah, I always tell Bitcoiners, so there's 21 million Bitcoin, but there's only one Cherito, so talk about scarcity,

Mike Peterson:

And I love that you bring this to the different events, and and then you also travel quite a bit to different Bitcoin conferences where you're offering coffee. I've always been curious, like, what - what is your motivation behind that? Because it doesn't necessarily seem like it would make business sense, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you make contacts at those conferences that become buyers, and so, yeah, what's your goal when you go to those conferences?

Cherito:

Yeah, the objective is, well, El Salvador has never really been known to export, you know, technology, financial services, or anything. So, coffee, the way our approach is from a bottoms-up approach is two things. As I mentioned in Bitcoin conferences, a, I am not competitive at mining, or how do I get Bitcoin?

Mike Peterson:

Yeah,

Cherito:

And that is through commerce, and if one thing I am is I'm trying to be very commercial and be an example to other, to other other small vendors, like here you see some, the Minuta, the shaved the shave ice vendors with the B on the sign, the Pupus area, they're able to sell in cash, maybe credit card and Bitcoin. Why not also with the cherito? So I could have like a nice location, but the Cherito, for me, is could be an ambassador of Cafe del Salvador, because I represent not only our farms but also 25 other small and medium sized producers that are also now familiar with Bitcoin, and so from a business perspective it was more like just to let people know that, that anybody whose time times the energy, the function of our work is the function of time times the energy times the proof of work, and all that is related to what we produce at the end of 12 to 14 month span, and it's in the bag over there, and if we're able to motivate others to use their store value, Bitcoin, towards a medium of exchange with what you guys have done here with the circular economy, I think we become part of that, and when people, other people, see what we do, they may replicate it in others, other small towns in El Salvador, and maybe one day we're example of other coffee producers in Colombia, Mexico. They're gonna be like, what is El Salvador doing? You know, there was this guy, Cherito, crazy guy, outside, you know, selling at all these farmers markets, and that's kind of the. and in the end, it's having coffee with anybody. It's it allows us to have conversations, and for me to learn from visitors over a coffee. They would ask me about El Salvador, and I would be able to kind of, kind of let them be more interested about our country, become like we're all ambassadors of El Salvador, so coffee and Bitcoin to me is interconnected, because both of our, except that it smells, we make Bitcoin smell good,

Mike Peterson:

And I think you've, you've seen the benefit to the country as a whole and to the economy of having this be the first country to adopt Bitcoin, the investors that are coming in, I think there might have even been some people in the Bitcoin space that have been invested in your business and come alongside you guys. So, what would you say to the impact that it's had on the country as a whole by adopting Bitcoin?

Cherito:

Yeah, definitely, as you know, as I mentioned, the Bitcoin community, not only comes here to serve and see the sunsets, they want to come here and make sure that, like a beachhead, like I think that is the feel that I get, like they want this project to be an example. It is already an example by far, I think I've been fortunate to travel, and I've seen what it has done, and I think it's, it's my, my, my estimate that it will continue to grow, now diversifying to other industries, and that is full of hope. I think it's more jobs are going to be both direct and indirect. Impact is going to be having, you know, we already see that with tourism. There's, as I drive now along the coast, I mean, it's amazing how many wellness projects. Projects and the countries you know we're the same time zone as the US, it's the heart of the America. So I think it's, it's for my children, it's going to be a better future. I'm confident of that.

Mike Peterson:

No, the hope and optimism you like see here, it's it's it's palatable, and the jobs that are created, and yeah, like I said, the, the, you know, when I talk to businesses here now, one of the things they say is, "Oh, it's hard to find employees, because, you know, now we have good problems.

Cherito:

Before it was the bad problem,

Mike Peterson:

like those are the problems you want to have. Yes, hard to find employees, that means that the economy is firing, and that the people are working, and the country is being productive, and so I love, I love hearing that.

Cherito:

Yeah, so the community is this is why I think that what I'm trying to, what I'm trying to also do with the coffee and Bitcoin is that I always think that the education is runs parallel to the proof of work, you know, in order for our communities to benefit at the most is to be complemented by education, financial education, and I think the government, local governments are doing that from what I read into incorporating into the school, the school system, so I think it's, I mean, all those things are long-term shots. I think the vision of a nation takes 25 years or more, maybe at this, at this rhythm it would be a fraction of that, but, but yes, it's, we're ready, yeah. No, it's definitely a long game that it would been cultivated, and it's going to be hard to kind of get us away from this this prosperous moment that we have now.

Mike Peterson:

So I want to make sure if there's people listening or watching that are in the coffee space that they know how they can buy coffee from you. What type of, you know, they want to try to set up a relationship with you. What is the best way for them to get in contact, or to see what you guys have to offer?

Cherito:

Okay, yeah. So this is one one thing I forgot to mention. You asked about the the impact of the objectives of traveling a lot of these conferences as we were talking that I've been participating in, such as Lugano Plan B, and where everybody that has coffee there is 100% produced in El Salvador, so we talk about the traceability in a transparent manner. Well, the organizers in Lugano are leading by example, and in Prague last year it was one week apart from the world of coffee, so a lot of these conferences in the summertime are also whether it's in Europe or in the US are kind of one week I don't know if it's by accident or what, or or God is like paving my path, but I have to go to both, which is why, like, for example, this, this is the molecular formula of coffee, of caffeine, and this is the mathematical formula of limited supply for Bitcoin, so this is an icebreaker, because this allows me to Orange Pill specialty coffee community, but also Bitcoiners who have no idea about coffee specialty coffee, it allows me to specialty coffee pool, so it's is my two worlds, my Dos Mundos, and and what I do also, it's been available by traveling, it allows me to set up operations abroad where Bitcoiners are able to buy the coffee, we're working with local storage facilities that allows us to kind of eliminate the intermediaries, so that way anybody that orders and we distribute from the hub in Germany, for Europe, and from Baltimore to the US, and so, like, all these ideas, like, are come out over coffee, because somebody tells me, "Do you know anything about logistics? You know, "Do you know you'll be better off by having a facility here? And it's kind of how you grow from just one truck, and I think this is where the Bitcoin community, everybody has a skill set, they're experts in whether it's programming or photographer content creation or logistic solutions. I mean, and how we can all make this project like seamless and better for opportunities for others, so it's traveling has allowed me to also make a bridge in international commerce of coffee, and better if it's through with Bitcoin, so it's worked has been. A wonderful ride.

Mike Peterson:

Well, I know I appreciate being able to get a good cup of coffee at all those events. So, it's so let people know where, where they can get a hold of you. What's the best way if they want to have a conversation with you? If they want to connect with you at a conference, and, and talk about, you know, some, some way to start using your coffee, what's the best way for them to get a hold of you?

Cherito:

Okay. Yes, so here that way, if you visit, the best thing to do is to visit El Salvador, come enjoy El Zonte. And when you come to the city, we just open a roastery and lab specialty coffee lab, where we have a copying table and cafe space, and we, it's really cool because we have two to two miners and a node, and then the screen we have the Mempool, we have, you know, the blockchain, all the all the transactions, and then we have the time, the time calendar, that it's really cool, because it breaks the ice, like people that are not Bitcoiners, yeah, com and they see what's that, and it's better for them to ask what's in the showcasing on the illustrated on the screen than asking what the hardware is, because hardware is not sexy, yeah, but when you see all this colors and all this activity, activity in the screen, each quadrant has its own explanation of what Bitcoin is, and they also get to see when we're roasting, so when we're roasting, the profiles are also showcased there, so it's really cool because they ask, Where's Bitcoin and coffee come, where's the relationship, and this is where we show where, when people pay with Bitcoin, a goes through the node, and it some sets can get distributed to the baristas, or and also through to the to the workers that are 2, 3, 4, hours away in the mountains as royalties, and that's the good thing, because it's it allows us to kind of pass on the 4.5% commission from banks and reallocate it along the workers, so it makes everybody happy.

Mike Peterson:

No, I love that. Back to my original question, I want to make sure people can find,

Cherito:

Dos Mundos is in San Salvador, San Benito, and we're always,

Mike Peterson:

But if people aren't in El Salvador and they're wanting to reach out, what's okay?

Cherito:

So, yes, in Instagram or X, we have our social media website, which is Cherito Cafe, or at Cherito Cafe dot SV, and also the website cheritocafe.com where we showcase this Satoshi Single Specialty Coffee series, and we also participate. We also always announce once we get invited to whether it's in Europe, whether it's Prague or Lugano, where we, we've been participating the last couple years, and so Bitcoin as well. It bites us, we're part of the association.

Mike Peterson:

We just had Will on this last week.

Cherito:

Yeah, so we were part of that, the network of So Bitcoin. So, and yeah, either through our website or social media,

Mike Peterson:

And is it possible for people in the US or Europe to order coffee directly? Or

Cherito:

Yes, yes. So, actually, you know, people order online, whether Bitcoin or fiat, and then within three to five, no more than seven days, they get delivered directly to their door, so it's okay. Awesome, from farm to cup,

Mike Peterson:

Yeah,

Cherito:

On the Bitcoin standard. So it's that's what we call the peer to peer electronic cash system, being, you know, being fundamental. So,

Mike Peterson:

I love it.

Cherito:

Well, did we miss anything? No, I think I went more granular than I should have, but no, no,

Mike Peterson:

I think that's what people find interesting, you know. They can kind of delve into a world they don't know that much about, and you know, we kind of take it for granted when we drink our coffee in the morning, and we don't realize how much work and blood and sweat and tears go into us being able to enjoy that, so I love, like, people getting from the backstory,

Cherito:

And I think it's, it's for me has been also a learning experience, because I remember the first couple of years, you know, listen to podcasts from, from a lot of Bitcoin OGs was always helpful, just like I've been learning a lot of fermentation and drying processes on the coffee years before, and, and I always, it always comes that down to that, like things that are well built, that are, have good, that are meaningful, it's like the proof of work, and now I learn like it. If I see another coffee that's just been going from from intermediary to intermediary, nobody really knows the word that went behind is like, like a proof of steak, I say, because It's like a, it's like a cherry, actually. The bean is it's like, you know, it's commercial, that's why it can very large for the most part, and in our case, what my mom created a recipe that we would depulp and we take the skin and never have the same quality as something that you really nurture and you produce, and so we all, I think, people evaluate we dry it in the shade for seven to 12 days, and after storing it that a lot. for about a month, where, because we don't use agrochemicals or pesticides or fungicides, we also have honey. We produce honey. What we do is that it's like hibiscus tea.

Mike Peterson:

Okay,

Cherito:

So we make a very refreshing cold brew, we call it Cáscara cold brew.

Mike Peterson:

Okay,

Cherito:

Fom the cherry, so that's the skin that we're able to optimize. Some of the most of it goes, we use it for bokashi or organic or organic compost, but some of it from some lots we make it, and we package it as a coffee cherry tea.

Mike Peterson:

Okay,

Cherito:

And that's what we serve here during when we participate at the farmers.

Mike Peterson:

Oh, really? I didn't know that.

Cherito:

It's refreshing because some people don't want, like, coffee or it's hot. Yeah, so we like try this, and we, my mother, like, puts a, she makes the infusion like a tea, and then all she puts is a honey from the coffee blossom, everything's from the from the coffee plantation, so the coffee blossom, so then it dissolves there. The next day, ice cubes, a lime juice, and ice cubes, and that's it's antioxidant, it doesn't have any caffeine, so that's what we called one day during a pizza day. I had to break the story. If you Google or look for on the on one or one of those magazines from New York, Bloomberg, and you put Satoshi Libre or Bitcoin Libre. I was joking with the reporter because I thought she was doing a hit piece during a pizza day. She said, "What are you having? I think she was at the Casa del Bitcoin, and I said, "This is Bitcoin Libre. Bitcoin Libre, she said. Why? Why is it called like that? Because if Fidel Castro celebrates communism with Cuba Libre and Coca Cola, here in El Salvador, we celebrate a financial freedom with the coffee cherry tea, which is not coffee, it comes from the from the from the little skin. So that's that was my Wall Street moment.

Mike Peterson:

fThat's unny.

Cherito:

So we call it a lot of Bitcoiners now call, hey, they come second time, third time, and they already know. Hey, I won a Bitcoin Libre, but I wanted with rum, so that's that's complicated. But yeah, that's that's kind of the story of I like that. I love hearing my next. I got is really cool because I have some plebs that always say, Cherito, if you come, please bring, bring some Satoshi lLbres for after hours,

Mike Peterson:

Perfect. So, all right, all right. I'm gonna have to try one of those. Well, it's been fun having you in here. It's for me, I love learning more about coffee, but also this has been a long time coming. So,

Cherito:

Well, thank you.

Mike Peterson:

Appreciate all the work you do in the space. I mean, you are really an ambassador for the country, for the coffee industry, and for Bitcoin. So, I appreciate, and I know how much work it is. I, I came from the food concessions business, and so I know what it takes to set up at places and do all that, and the logistics involved. So, definitely appreciate your effort.

Cherito:

No, but thank you, Mike, and team. I think it's, it's great with what you guys are doing. This space is being here in El Zonte, is very.. it's.. it's a.. it's one of those things that we're going to look back and see how everything came to be in the prosperity and the communities speak for themselves. So, thank you for what you guys are doing.

Mike Peterson:

Yeah, all right. Cherito, thank you. Next time.