Origin Trip to Costa Rica – part 3

Luis Alvarez, one of our Coffee Quality Consultants, recently travelled to Costa Rica in a quest to find amazing coffee and to meet some of the incredible people who are part of the Cooperatives that we work with. In this blog series, he tells us about some of his experiences on the trip.

We finally made it to the farm. While driving to the main entrance we could see beautiful cows wandering free around the landscape, surrounded by a mild fog that cleared up as we continue ahead. Not long after we were greeted by Don Jorge, the main farmer/owner of Finca Las Palomas and his son Daniel. WOW!!, what a beautiful farm! This was a highlight of the entire trip.

This farm specialises in high-quality microlots, growing Geisha, Catuai and Caturra varieties. There were coffee trees full of red cherries, and every single plant looked healthy and beautiful. Here, we experienced first-hand what micro-climates are all about: in a matter of minutes we went from a sunny landscape to a foggy one with a mist coming down the mountains, and from drizzly lower temperatures to a warm feel. This farm won the Cup of Excellence in 2017.

We were not aware that lunch was being prepared for us at the farm, and we were able to share this experience of eating surrounded by coffee trees with pickers and farmers, and also all of us could taste the coffee grown in their farm; a moment that not many farmers around the world get to experience so often.

Before the day ended, we drove to the town of Acosta in which we visited the Asoproa Micro Mill (they work together with Finca Las Palomas). ASOPROA is an association funded to finance and support small farmers from the region. When the production of coffee started to rise a few years ago, the need to build a micro mill began.