Photography by Jane Kortright
At Relic, an Augusta coffee spot, it’s all about the Ecuadorian bean. Owners, and newlyweds, Moniqua Acosta and Caesar Schettini have taken heritage and turned it into something that they can share directly with their community.
Creating something valuable for the community is incredibly important for the pair. Their success is evident in the way they quickly get to know their regulars and talk with fondness about the parents who bring their pajama’d children in for a treat on Saturday mornings.
Alongside the other businesses at the intersection of Monte Sano and Central avenues, they have helped create a vibe similar to Five Points in Athens. “More than a coffee shop, we are a progress project in the neighborhood,” says Schettini. “We are pushing for diversity very hard, both in the neighborhood and in Augusta. We want to normalize being different.”
Their passion for quality coffee shows as Schettini expatiates the numerous qualities of the beans from his homeland. “Of all the coffee that is exported in the world, Ecuador only exports 1%. So, it’s not much. But it is the coffee with the highest grades when it comes to flavor, and therefore is the most expensive on the market.”
Acosta’s refined palate helps the shop create flavor profiles while managing consistency. “The Ecuadorian bean you can taste from the front of your tongue all the way to the back of your mouth,” she explains. “I use it as my benchmark for a lot of other beans.”
At Relic, they insist on quality. “We make all our alternative milks and our syrups in-house,” says Schettini. “We measure everything — milk, coffee going into the machine, coming out of the machine. Every single bean is handled differently with its own grind and temperature settings. We don’t guesstimate. It allows us to keep it very consistent.” As Acosta puts it, “It should always taste better as it cools down. If it’s made properly, the nuances should change as the temperature changes, so that you can taste different things.”
In typical Ecuadorian fashion, the team at Relic has decided to make their own bread, a traditional coffee pairing. Schettini’s mother, Lupita Armas, makes it at the coffehouse daily, ensuring freshness.
Favorites include the Palanqueta, a personal-size baguette, and the Gusanito, a sweet yeast roll lightly filled with ingredients such as cinnamon and brown sugar. Bagels for their sandwiches are also made from scratch. Open Tuesday through Friday 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., there is always something uniquely Ecuadorian to satiate hunger, quench thirst and develop connections.
Seen in the August/September 2024 issue of Augusta magazine.
