His coffee is coveted around the world. His son doesn’t know if his future is on the farm

When Jose, left, was younger and attended coffee events with his father, right, he felt overlooked by those only looking to talk to the producer. Photograph: Owen Racer

On an October day, Jose Jijon rang up a customer’s $35 bag of coffee at a Brooklyn, New York, cafe. The transaction was one of many as shoppers poured in and out of Sey Coffee, one of the country’s most renowned roasteries.

There was no way the patron who browsed the coffee varieties – each identified by producer, location and altitude of the farm – could know the smiling young cashier wearing the Johnny Cash T-shirt was the heir apparent to the coffee farm whose beans they had just purchased.