Coffee has been cultivated in Costa Rica since 1779. Currently, the regions producing the best quality are Tarrazu, West Valley, and Central Valley. Coffee production has been threatened the past decade due to a real-estate boom converting coffee-lands into prime development properties. San Jose, the capital, is right in the heart of Central Valley where you will find private houses next to coffee farms. The value of these farms have now skyrocketed.
Cafe Imports bought its first Costa Rica microlot container at the end of the 2006/2007 harvest; at that time the microlot offerings were basically non-existent. In six years the Costa Rica microlot market has grown to be one of the most popular origins that deliver very consistent quality year-after-year.
The Costa’s Cafe Imports is carrying this spring (2013) are all sourced directly from micro-mills and producers were paid at the Farm Gate level. We managed local transportation, dry-milling, consolidation, and exportation of the coffees. This experience is extremely valuable as it gives us a better understanding of what it takes to get coffee from cherry to export quality in GrainPro and Yute with its corresponding marks.
Cafe Imports is excited to bring you, once again, high-quality and traceable microlots from Costa Rica.
-Piero Cristiani
