The secret diary of a green coffee buyer aged 40 and 1/4
A trip around Central America Day 2 Central and Western Valley, Costa Rica
Isn’t it funny, when your really tired , you just can not sleep. I woke at 5 am buy my bank telling me that someone was using my card fraudulently in Costa Rica. This was despite me ringing them and emailing them before my trip, got to love banks. I informed them this was not true and of the time in Costa Rica and went back to lying awake.
Early start though, so the waking early was good, and a trip to the exporters we work with office to cup coffee. They look after us so well and help us so much finding great coffee, but also managing the relationships with the producers along with us. We have worked with them for four years, and I always enjoy meeting the team again.
The cupping is amazing and gives me high hopes for the coming years Costa Rica crop, and the relationships we have had. Highlights were from Carlos Arrietta who has done even more work this year with his coffee, and Herbazu
From the cupping it gives us a plan of attach of where to visit. We have planned the usual suspects of Licho, and Of course I have planned in seeing Carlos from above. You see last year I only found his coffee on the last day, before leaving for the airport at the cupping, he came to the cupping at my exporters, so I did get a chance to meet him and one of his sons and one of his daughters, but not in his home environment. A little bit of the reason for moving the cupping around so if we did find something then we could slot it in.
One such thing we found was our first stop, from the Valverde Vega region of Central Valley run by a guy called Allan (I wish I could read my handwriting) who’s honey coffee had impressed me an hour before. The mill / farm was called La Cumbre de San Louis
The mill looked amazing, but what impressed me the most was the experiments he had going on with drying, and I hope to be able to share more with you on this latter in the year.
We jumped back in the car then and drove to one of Allans Neighbours called Cerro De San Louis where Sara the owner along with her Husband Alex showed us around. Not before I lost my phone and wallet at Allans farm last. A mad drive back up to a spot where we had stopped to take photos of La cumbre to find it under the seat of the car (panic over).
Back to Cerro De San Louis, Sara took time out to show me around this beautifully presented farm, where again there were some shade drying experiments going on, I found it interesting that both sets of growers, had taken it upon themselves to start doing some very different approaches to the problems to see what effect it would have on the cup.
After this we dive down to the Town of Sarchi and in to the Western Valley region neat to the town of Lourdes De Naranjo. We go to the mill that has the name Cafe Arbar, keep in mind last year the farms an mill had no name at all. Carlos and his daughter and two sons and wife are very keen to show me around the mill, the new signs they had put up (the paint was still wet) and tell me about their plans. They have split the lot up into two separate pieces of land and have been experimenting with Honey Process. The cupping results earlier became clear as the honey process made more sense to the changes I had detected in the cup, but they are very positive ones.
We then had one of the best meals I have had in a long time with the whole family (apart from one Daughter who had had to work and Carlos was very disappointed I couldn’t meet her, I over heard a conversation to see if we could drop back later, but so tight was our schedule). We also got to visit one of the plots that has been separated into the new farms called Finca Manantial. Expect great things this year, but we were zoomng off.
We zoom off to the town of Zaecerro, one I’ve been to a few times and met with Gillio. Unfortunately Gillo was not home today, so instead we went to visit one of the new farms we wanted to look at from the cupping. The farm is called Finca Salaca and owed by Maria Elena Castro and her son Luis, who by day is a School maths teacher and by night creator of some of the best black honeys I have ever tasted. An impeccable mill I soon realised on the approach I had been to before. Luis is a very gracious host, and the soon is starting to set, a busy time for a miller, but he gave us a big chunk of his time. I went to put on my sunglasses, and suddenly realised I could not find them, tracing back my steps, I remembered taking them off for a photo at Finca Manantial. I was not having a good day for keeping my stuff. A call to Carlos and 10 mins of panic (they were an expensive present to myself recently) Carlos finds them.
So a change of plan means heading back down the western valley corridor to the town of Lordes, where the daughter of Carlos I missed earlier had come home from work and everyone was very happy, it was great to meet all the family who work hard on the farm.
A little way down on the way back to San Jose we take a quick pit stop to visit the vista El Valle mill a coffee we enjoyed last year, the light was fading but great to meet the farmer Oldemar again, and all thanks to my sunglasses. By this time the light was fading, but time for one last night time under the stars stop to the mill known as Herbazu. Herbazu was one of the first Costa Rican farms I go to know, and Manuel Antonio is a legend in coffee. He very kindly took us up to the mill under the stars and walked us around the facility. Its my third visit there, but the first time with the tour by the legend, I may have gotten a bit starry eyed under the stars, but he seemed to forgive me, even talked about coming to visit us in the UK maybe in the future.
And then the drive back to San jose, with all my stuff with me, and exhausted. Any one who says its and easy life, trust me, we did not stop, and a similar program lined up for the coming days. All those offers I get of people wanting to carry my bags, although I could do with them to keep my possessions, I think would back out after a few days.
So sleep deprived and tired, the dinner with some lovely Australian coffee buyers I had to rain check on, as I was so shattered. Its a shame as it was something I was looking forward to as they are good friends, but I wasn’t sure I’d ever eat again after the delicious dinner from Carlos and his family.
