STORY

Flavors: Mandarin orange, white grape, maple syrup, brown sugar, vanilla, nectarine, caramel with a hint of custard.

Feelings: Sweeter than candy. Like gently gliding into a down comforter.

Alice Soto is the matriarch and farm owner; she loves coffee and wishes to keep the farm a living legacy for the future generations. The problem is that the new generations don ́t want to work the land and have not seen that coffee is a worthwhile investment. So Alice has been fighting to keep the farms growing and producing coffee. She hopes that by growing high quality Specialty Coffee and selling it for high enough prices, she can show her grandkids that coffee farming is worth it and can deliver joy, hope and pay the bills.

But the farm suffered from a lack of active management for several years as the family could not agree on whether to sell the land and build condos (the land is right between San Jose and Cartago in the Tres Rios region) or to follow Alice and the families history and grow coffee.

SMS Specialty Coffee project came to offer their management services, the farm needed an extreme makeover. 40 hectares of the farm needed renovation, and farm productivity was the lowest of the farms long and storied history. Two years ago, the goal was to transform a traditional non Speciality coffee farm into a top-of-the-line productive specialty coffee farm. New environmental and social principles were implemented in order to continue protecting the clear flowing rivers, an abundance of trees, and native wildlife that thrived on the farm. The farm uses zero insecticides and is focused on growing the native bee population to enhance natural pollenization. As part of the renovations the team planted new, modern high quality hybrids that yield exceptional cup quality and protect against many of the modern pests that have decimated so many coffee farms.

Pairing all the farm investment with engaging with a new modern wet mill has made all the difference. Patalillo Wet Mill is a state of the art wet mill highly tuned for Costa Rica’s unique honey process. It allows the hard work of Alice and the farm management tea to shine in this fine example of a perfect Honey processed Tres Rios Costa Rica coffee.