The Rainbow Bug That Brought a Family Together
Before Sabrosito was a business, before the labels, the website, and the coffee bags, there were real coffee fields, hard work, family, and one colorful little Volkswagen Bug that kept moving forward.
We arrived in Costa Rica in 1981.
We were in transit, waiting for our chance to come to the United States, and because of that, we could not officially work. But life does not pause just because paperwork says you are waiting.
So my dad and I did what we could.
We worked on the side picking coffee beans.
When I was not in school, I was out there helping bring in a little money. I was only 12 years old, working alongside grown men, trying to keep up and do my part.
It was not easy work. Coffee picking sounds simple until you are actually doing it under the sun, on uneven ground, reaching, bending, carrying, and learning quickly that you pick up more than just coffee beans.
You pick up bugs.
You run into lizards.
You watch for snakes.
You meet all kinds of Costa Rican fauna that apparently also believe they have first rights to the coffee fields.
At first, we rode the bus to get around. But after a while, through saving and hard work, my dad was able to buy a 1958 VW Bug.
That little car was something else.
It had a tiny engine that suffered going up the hills of Costa Rica, but somehow it kept going. Slow, loud, tired, probably complaining in German, but always moving forward.
The paint job looked like a Picasso painting after a rainstorm. It had every color under the rainbow, which is why I call it The Rainbow Bug.
But that car was more than transportation.
It brought our family together.
We drove it to Cartago to visit the Basilica of Our Lady of the Angels. We took trips to Alajuela, San José, and Poás Volcano. We packed into that little car and made memories that stayed with me long after the car was gone.
Life was not easy, but we stayed together. We supported one another. And somehow, that colorful little VW Bug became part of our family story.
Looking back now, I realize that car represented more than a way to get from one place to another. It represented my father’s determination. It represented our family’s ability to keep moving, even when the road was steep and the engine was struggling.
Slow, but always moving forward.
That is part of where Sabrosito comes from.
Not from a boardroom.
Not from a marketing idea.
But from real coffee fields, hard work, family, sacrifice, and memories like this one.
A rainbow-colored 1958 VW Bug.
A family trying to build a future.
And a little boy learning that even when life is hard, you keep going.
Slow, but always moving forward.