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Another January Costa Rica Coffee Harvest Soiree -2012 version

Existential questions arise on an early harvest trip to the Costa Rica coffee harvest, to visit the farms and micro mills.

There I was, once again, in Costa Rica. How did this happen?

The coffee is overpriced in many cases. There are not many opportunities here. The cost of living is soaring and there are Americans with second homes or retirement homes all over.

It is a very beautiful place, and I respect the farmers a lot. They are proud, independent and inventive, generally. Who can blame them for wanting everything they can get for their coffee?

The main issue at play with rising prices is the competition by small buyers. This place is so easily accessed. Buyers swarm all over and drive up prices on themselves without a great regard for cup quality:

When you have a lot of buyers with un-calibrated tastes and some limited experience, even some marginally defective lots will sell and high prices. There is still some very fine coffee. But Costa Rica has become over exposed, overblown, I fear, and might be less attractive going forward if it keeps heading down this path -Thompson Jan 2012

Remember the old joke – two woman are complaining about food at a diner and one says” Terrible meal” and the other adds, “Yes, and such small portions!” . So if you like it I guess Big is Good
I love this think, totally wonky but judging by the cup of coffee he served us, it works! When wony works, that’s a good thing.
more photos of chickens. What respectable coffee farm doesn’t have a few chickens around?
Head of Crestones group and his little statuettes at his home. He made us a great lunch, and some pretty amazing coffee too.
Just playing with light and focus. That’s what happens when you spend all your money on a camera.
If you go to a coffee farm, you pretty much HAVE TO take a picture of the fruit on the tree. It’s a rule.
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Another photo for a boy who likes bones, but something I can show you too. I did not know there were Armadillo outside of Texas.
On the road into Chirripo, old Typica planted 40-50 years ago, uncared for but still doing OK.
A really beautiful place off the Pan American, which hits near 2800 meters near by.
Green coffee cherry, perfectly selected the way the Japanese like it, easy to make in special roast style. (lol)
Parchment coffee on the patio, as it has rarely been seen before, with ’70s-ish light effects. Los Angeles mill.
Disco brightness at the Calderon mill this year. Getting fancy after that Cup of Excellence win.
A small mill with a small machine and a large price tag
It seems like you could use these for something, right? Like a bottle brush. But as is they are pretty delightful
Santa Maria de Dota town from the farms above.
It’s all about the blades, which adjust and flex to separate unripe and ripe coffee cherry. A new Penagos design.
I take insect pictures for Ben, but what the heck, you can see them too.
The fancy stuff, they lay it on beds, so it can gently dry, dreaming of the great coffee it will soon become.
They really need to take away those pens and whip those workers. I mean, Bart Simpson. That’s so ’90s.
A farm , A Micro Mill … no, BOTH!
The famous and often photographed Don Mayo Macro Mill in Bajo Canet de Tarazu
Coffee in parchment, gathered off the patios for the evening at Helsar Santa Lucia
Naranjo, Costa Rica, Late afternoon
Dumping Arce coffee into the Cahuela at Helsar Mill. Neat dump tractors they use there…
He has a unique way to put plants from the nursery into the field, and unique root pruning technique as well.
Nothing makes you feel smaller than standing in a field of coffee … well, unless they are little shrubs, which makes you feel taller.
It was difficult in person to figure out if these were more orange or pink. Definitely not yellow
Not enough photographs feature power lines and towers. It seems people want to exclude these from photos. Why? they possess stark beauty. This is the start of my photo series “Coffee and Power”.
While you can’t say there is a huge flavor difference, odd variations are fun to find. And the plant looked more like Villa sarchi than like Bourbon.
Whatever they were, they were nice looking, even for full sun plantings.
Nothing new in Costa Rica, but even the small guys do it without a speck of shade tree. Of course there are swaths of shade between farms and around waterways. Eleomar Lopez, Helsar
I have advocated direct-roast methods forever, and finally someone is trying it. This is a freshly “tree-roasted” coffee plant that will soon by picked. The roasted coffee bean pops out of the cherry with the force of it’s own CO-2, and it is the most aromatic cup you have ever tasted. Sadly, it requires re-planting the farm.
Harvested coffee cherry, ready to deliver to Helsar Santa Lucia mill for processing, at the farm of Manuel Arce
Mmmm… can’t you just taste them. This is why we go to “origin” – to get real close to coffee and take pictures!
It’s not often, but occasionally I step out from behind the camera and take one on the chin. Sr. Manuel Arce, his wife, a little Nicaragua boy, and a estranjero.
I was really surprised to see the dogs at Herbazu come out when a fresh load of pulped coffee was dumped and start snacking away! I guess its the presence of the sweet pulpy water or something!
I am so tired of these sticky ugly Honey coffees. I am anti Honey. Unless its the real thing, because I love honey. But honey-processed coffees always fall apart in the finish, and fade after a few months of storage.
At Lourdes de Naranjo, Costa Rica
This was forest coffee that Don Oscar simply stuck in the ground to reproduce. He was watering it with a sprinkler too. He has his own ways, some work, some don’t.
At Lourdes de Naranjo, Costa Rica
So nice to see when the old trees are maintained on the coffee farm, not cut down for lumber or fire wood. Farmers like Oscar definitely love and care for their land.
Late evening shadows make me feel huge. At a coffee nursery on the farm.
This guy was a little timid and scared but so sweet too. It’s so nice to see a dog that is happy and well treated. I havent figured why some of the dogs here are chained up while others roam free. A little paranoia at Genesis.
Myopic focus on coffee cherry in the back of the truck, ready to dump. Genesis was trying to buy cherry and become another processor for neighbors lots, but they really are not like Helsar, or others that do this.
I love this guy and his family, but man, the coffee on the patio was all over the place. We asked for wet-process style, clean parchment, But every batch was different, some deeply yellow, some full honey, some white.
Abba the Collie, not only a beautiful but gentle sweet dog. At Finca Genesis.
Perhaps you don’ realize, but I take pictures largely to create my own custom screensavers and backdrops. You know us Mac people, always trying to be original.
the cheap pipe they funneled cherry into this new Panagos with broke 3 times while I was there, and it makes you wonder how competent everything else is done … Finca Genesis, Lourdes de Naranjo

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