Costa Rican La Minita

Costa Rica is a small country in Central America about the size of West Virginia. In that space, there is a lot of coffee and a great deal of variation in flavor and quality. Several variables interact to determine how a coffee ultimately tastes. There are the human variables such as the care taken in picking, milling, and sorting the coffee, the type and extent of fertilization, the use of pesticides and herbicides, pruning practices, and how shade is managed. There are also natural variables such as soil composition and temperature and rainfall patterns. These natural variables are encapsulated in the concept of the micro-climate.

A trend in coffee producing countries is to identify the unique micro-climates where coffee is grown and to group them into larger but still well defined growing regions that produce coffee with distinct characteristics. Costa Rica has seven of these growing regions: West Valley, Central Valley, Tarrazú, Orosi, Turrialba, Tres Rios, and Brunca. The best coffees from these regions, while all delicious, taste quite different from each other, but similar to other coffees grown in the same region. Our Costa Rican coffee is from Hacienda La Minita in the Tarrazú region located south of the capital city of San José.

A great deal of care is taken with La Minita coffee in an effort to produce the best tasting coffee possible. This starts when the trees are just seedlings. New coffee trees are grown in a nursery before being planted in production areas of the farm. The nursery is positioned between the side of the mountain and a line of tall shade trees to keep the trees out of direct sunlight and at a cooler temperature. A gravity powered sprinkler system provides the extra water needed by these young trees.

Shade in production areas of the plantation is carefully managed. During the rainy season when there is nearly continuous cloud cover, the shade trees are severely pruned back. These are poro trees (Erythrina poeppigiana) which have been carefully placed to consider the slope of the mountain and the orientation of the land to provide optimal shade for the coffee when these porous trees grow back in time for the end of the rainy season. This allows the coffee cherries to ripen more slowly and results in a more flavorful coffee. In addition to the poro trees, there are also citrus and mango trees which bear fruit for the pickers to eat at harvest time.

La Minita also uses a selective pruning method in which every tree on the plantation is evaluated every year by skilled coffee growers to determine if pruning is needed and how much. This costs more than their previous practice of pruning every fifth row each year but this change results in a more consistent and better tasting coffee.

A 200 acre forest reserve is kept on the plantation. This reserve, spread throughout the farm, represents 20% of the plantation. This land is kept untouched and provides a habitat for native animals. The purpose of this land is not purely out of a desire to maintain some of the natural environment. Soil samples are taken from the reserves and the production areas. Analysis of these samples allows very selective fertilization to bring the soil in the production areas to the condition the soil would be in had coffee not been growing there. This is the only chemical input on the farm. No herbicides or pesticides are used on the coffee and all of the weeding is done by hand. Coffee trees grown without the use of herbicides are stronger than sprayed coffee and are preferred by the local birds. This practice is remarkable considering that the Tarrazú region of Costa Rica contains some of the most valuable coffee growing land in the world and, as a result, the coffee is everywhere.

Coffee pickers on La Minita are expected to only pick the ripe cherries. They also must be careful not to damage the trees while picking on the steep mountain slopes. This truly is skilled labor and La Minita pays a premium for the care and quality of work expected. In addition to a good wage, the farm provides secure, modern housing for workers who want it. Refrigerators, televisions, and electric stoves are not uncommon and are powered principally by hydroelectric power. The farm added a preventative care and dental clinic in 1995 to supplement Costa Rica's socialized health care.

Once the coffee is picked, the cherries must be moved to the mill very quickly or the coffee will turn bad. This coffee goes to a mill Hacienda La Minita purchased in 2001 located where the Tarrazú and Candolaria Rivers meet below the farm. The mill is very modern and meets or exceeds Costa Rica's strict environmental standards. The river water used in the processing leaves the mill cleaner than when it enters and the mill has received awards from government agencies in Costa Rica for environmental soundness and providing a good work environment.

At the mill, there are no fewer than six points at which a bean can be rejected for inclusion in the top quality mark we purchase. This includes mechanical color sorting and a final hand sorting. Samples of the coffee that pass these sorts are roasted and cupped to evaluate the quality of the coffee.

All of this results in a coffee we like very much.

Neal Wilson visited Hacienda La Minita and the mill that processes La Minita coffee in 2001 and 2002, seeing how things are done first hand both during the harvest and while the coffee is not yet ripe. He has also cupped coffees from all seven growing regions in Costa Rica.

External Links

Hacienda La Minita has a web site with information on the farm and photographs.