Costa Rica En Enero | Sweet Maria's Coffee Library

Costa Rica En Enero

I find myself in Costa Rica again, but it took so long to upload these pictures, that it is not even my most recent trip there. In any case, this place has become difficult to work. It's the easiest coffee producing country for US buyers to hit, and the pricing for coffees that cup well (and many that don't) has become ridiculous. You can't blame exporters and farmers for trying to get the most, but you would hope they might value longer term relationships over the most recent yokel to come along and buy ridiculously small amounts of coffee at ridiculously huge prices. What about the cup? Wasn't it all supposed to be about the cup? Sometimes it seems the train has left the tracks... in any case there are still good coffees in CR and still good farmer and farms. Here are a few... -Tom

Coffee Warehouses are so exciting. I went to Costa Rica in January, which is never a bad proposition, and ended up here. Doesn't...	The new dry mill, on it's side, being put in. So Inclusive Coffee, I mean, Exclusive, is putting in a new dry mill and that's pretty exciting...	Wayner and Jose Javier The cuppers, setting up a table. These guys do so much work to prepare and track samples. It's a...
Finca Los Robles Superpowers A quick stop at Finca Los Robles in Central Valley. Power controls are the most exciting thing....	Covered drying at Finca Los Robles Parchment coffee, after being removed from the fruit and demucilaged, drying at Finca Los Robles...	Cafetalera Herbazu Cafetalera Herbazu, a coffee we are not bringing in this year, but a nice cup!
Cafetalera Herbazu's Familia de los Perros They have a whole extended family of these little brown dogs. Cafetalera Herbazu Costa Rica	Cafetalera Herbazu - Kenia Cultivar Kenia cultivar is the same distribution found scattered around Central america, El Salvador for...	Cafetalera Herbazu - Gesha Cultivar Geisha or Gesha or Gushah! Not looking super clean. But who knows? Costa Rica Cafetalera Herbazu...
Tonio Barrantes pulling a parchment sample at Cafetalera Herbazu Antonio Barrantes at the warehouse and mill. Herbazu dry-mills their own coffees. Cafetalera...	Yellow Catuai You find Yellow Catuai at many farms in CR foir some reason, sprinkled about here and there. It'...	Kenya cultivar at Cafetalera Herbazu Kenia cultivar fruit, same as found in El Salvador. Who knows what it is - SL-28? probably not....
Villa Sarchi at Cafetalera Herbazu The classic Villa Sarchi that Herbazu is known for. Why mess with a winner? Costa Rica...	Gesha at Cafetalera Herbazu Everyobe but everyone has their little Gesha crop. Why? Perhaps it cups well, perhaps not. Its a...	Gesha at Cafetalera Herbazu Pretty Gesha flowers, a bit out of season, but so is everything in the coffee areas. Costa Rica...