Sergio Boppel
Roaster/Owner, Great Circle Coffee | Miami
March 2021
Sergio Boppel was born in Guatemala, the land of full-bodied coffee beans grown on farms so green that they almost hurt to look at. His great-grandfather was a coffee farmer, and although Boppel moved to Brussels at age 14, his uncle and cousin continued the legacy of growing and harvesting high-quality coffee. Boppel studied chemical engineering at Purdue University and got an MBA from Babson College in 2007 before working in engineering and finance for more than a decade. But in 2015, Boppel and his wife, Carolina Jaar, invested in their own idea: a coffee company with the vision to make a positive impact in every step of the supply chain. They loved Miami, where they had family, and knew the city had a particular appreciation for coffee, though there wasn’t a large variety in the specialty category. But Boppel doesn’t mind sharing stories with customers about coffee regions, farmers, suppliers, and all the ecological factors that can make coffee production sustainable. In 2016, he started roasting in his own Little Haiti space and grew his wholesale model with restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries, and hotels as clients. Today, Great Circle Coffee retails precisely roasted, sustainably sourced coffees from around the world, including some from Boppel’s uncle’s farm in Guatemala.
