About This Coffee
The cherries for this lot were produced on the farm of Gerardo Calvo, Zaira Marín and William Méndez. The three are close friends who co-own and manage Finca Frailes. All three are lifelong coffee farmers, the second and third generations in their families to farm coffee.
Cultivation
The trio planted coffee on Finca Frailes over 30 years ago and have used a regular renovation plan to maintain the farm’s health and productivity. They focus on growing Caturra and Catuai.
Harvest & Post-Harvest
Farmers bring their cherry to the mill by truck. At the mill, they measure cherries by the half fanega (approximately 46 kg). The mill sorts cherries visually and then floats cherry to remove lights.
Ripe cherry is then sealed in containers and fermented anaerobically (without oxygen). After fermentation, cherry is sundried on raised beds.
About Palmichal Micro-mill
Palmichal micro-mill is an important partner for many specialty coffee producers in the Palmichal, Puriscal, Tarrazu and Frailes micro-regions in Costa Rica. Located in Palmichal in Costa Rica, the micro-mill began in the 2015/2016 harvest with 30 participating farmers participating.
The mill strives to serve farmers who grow unique coffees and to sell those coffees to quality-conscious importers and micro-roasters. They process cherry using meticulous quality-focused processing techniques. Their small-scale, artisanal model enables them to match coffees from smallholder farmers to roasters with specific quality and process requirements all while maintaining economic and physical traceability.
The mill has patios and elevated beds to enable various kinds of drying. It is able to process coffees as Fully washed conventional (which is less common in Costa Rica due to the strict water usage laws), Natural, Honeys and a variety of certifications and grades. The mill boasts 23 solar panels that generate 5.0 kWp. Due to its modular setup, the micro-mill can easily continue growing to match demand.
The mill’s nursery has over 330,000 plants and counting, making it one of the largest coffee nurseries in the county. The Palmichal nursery sells the plants to producers at cost to make it easier for farmers to renovate their rootstock. It also gives farmers the opportunity to access fair financing against their future crops.
Processing in Costa Rica
Quite frequently, specialty coffees in Costa Rica are marketed and sold under the name of the mill that took care of the primary processing. One of the main reasons the majority of producers send their harvest to an external mill for processing is that land in Costa Rica is so expensive. The advantage of this is that processing is much more uniform for larger-volume coffees. This structure also greatly reduces the cost of production for small producers.
Most of the specialty-focused micro-mills preserve the traceability of the coffees they process. They are structured in a way that they can receive and process coffees from different farms or regions separately, maintaining traceability all the way back to the farmer.
Palmichal mill is a part of the NAMA Café de Costa Rica project, the first of the Costa Rican government’s Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions (NAMAs). They’re actively working towards lower carbon emissions through investments in key technologies and methods. NAMA Café de Costa Rica is the first of its kind to support coffee farmers as they make changes to their coffee production to reduce overall emissions and resource use. Palmichal mill has contributed carbon emissions data to NAMA Café de Costa Rica and will receive 10% back on carbon reduction investments.
Coffee in Costa Rica
Thanks to tireless innovations, the sheer number of coffee varieties, extensive technical knowledge and attention to coffee production, Costa Rica is one of the most advanced coffee producing countries in Central America.
The climatic conditions in the country also play a role in the high quality of coffee produced. There are eight coffee regions: Guanacaste, West Valley, Turrialba, Valle Central (Central Valley), Tres Rios, Brunca, Orosi, and Tarrazú, a specific part of Valle Central.
Costa Rica has also become a world leader in traceability and sustainability in coffee production. Ninety percent of the country’s 50,000 coffee farmers are smallholders, and today, many deliver their cherry to boutique micro-mills that often process cherries according to producer specs to retain single-lot or single-farm qualities.
The rise of micro-mill processing, in itself, is a relatively recent development. Prior to the early 2000s it was common for smaller producers to deliver their cherry to cooperative-owned mills. As lucrative specialty markets developed, more and more farmers began establishing mills on their own farms, giving them increased control over processing and more assurance of the ‘traceability story’ so important to the growing market segment. Mills with excess capacity would then offer their services to neighboring farmers, offering a range of processing methods for small lots along with full traceability for roasters and importers. The system has enabled Costa Rica’s small to mid-sized coffee farmers to offer a wide range of differentiated products. Today, specialty lots from Costa Rica are almost as likely to bear the name of the micro-mill where they were processed as that of the producing farm.
The typically uncertain and dry weather patterns in Costa Rica make coffee farming more difficult. Long dry seasons and unpredictable weather patterns have virtually eliminated the possibility of organic farming. Nonetheless, both the government and farmers have taken active steps to protect the environment. Some of these restrictions also inform the processing methods for which Costa Rican coffee has become known.