Things are changing in Costa Rica: Farms and mills operate as brand names, cultivating an image, and buyers scramble to compete for them. Why?
I find myself in Costa RicaCosta Rican coffee is typically very clean, sweet, with lots of floral accents. hey are prized for their high notes: bright citrus or berry-like flavors in the acidity,... ...more 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…
(ps This travelogue is from 2011) -Tom
I went to Costa Rica in January, which is never a bad proposition, and ended up here. Doesn’t look like tropical forests and sandy beaches, eh? But its a coffee thing, you know. Costa Rica 
The cuppers, setting up a table. These guys do so much work to prepare and track samples. It’s a big job. Costa Rica So Inclusive Coffee, I mean, Exclusive, is putting in a new dry mill and that’s pretty exciting, because getting control of quality is always a good thing. Costa Rica A quick stop at Finca Los Robles in Central Valley. Power controls are the most exciting thing. Costa Rica They have a whole extended family of these little brown dogs. Cafetalera Herbazu Costa Rica Parchment coffee, after being removed from the fruit and demucilaged, drying at Finca Los Robles Costa Rica Kenia cultivar is the same distribution found scattered around Central america, El Salvador for example. Costa Rica Cafetalera Herbazu Costa Rica Geisha or Gesha or Gushah! Not looking super clean. But who knows? Costa Rica Cafetalera Herbazu Costa Rica Antonio Barrantes at the warehouse and mill. Herbazu dry-mills their own coffees. Cafetalera Herbazu Costa Rica You find Yellow Catuai at many farms in CR foir some reason, sprinkled about here and there. It’s at Herbazu too. Costa Rica Kenia cultivar fruit, same as found in El Salvador. Who knows what it is – SL-28? probably not. Costa Rica Cafetalera Herbazu Costa Rica The classic Villa Sarchi that Herbazu is known for. Why mess with a winner? Costa Rica Cafetalera Herbazu Costa Rica 
Everyobe but everyone has their little Gesha crop. Why? Perhaps it cups well, perhaps not. Its a risk. Costa Rica Cafetalera Herbazu Costa Rica Pretty Gesha flowers, a bit out of season, but so is everything in the coffee areas. Costa Rica Cafetalera Herbazu Costa Rica 
Cafetalera Herbazu, a coffee we are not bringing in this year, but a nice cup! Modest to the Nth degree. But still neater than my desk Costa Rica Cafetalera Herbazu Costa Rica Costa Rica Costa Rica Costa Rica Costa Rica Costa Rica Costa Rica Not a very scary bear, but an Oso Blanco nonetheless. Costa Rica Costa Rica It’s Aldomar, classic Tico in his Chonete (hat) Costa Rica Ojo de Gallo Fungus, which results in leaf loss and eventually kills the tree. Costa Rica Costa Rica 
Yep, old Manantiales, which won CoE a lotng time back. Daisy is gone… Costa Rica Golden sunlight, honey coffee … well, at least it is a nice looking photo! Costa Rica Costa Rica f2.8 is how I roll . Costa Rica Costa Rica A big Ficus mothers a little coffee shrub. Finca Manantiales. Costa Rica Costa Rica Yeah, thats what they call me at “origin” . You know “origin”. It’s where stuff comes from. Costa Rica Costa Rica Farewell Finca Genesis. Your coffee was way too random… but what great people. Costa Rica Costa Rica Finca Genesis, swell dogs of Costa Rica Santa Lucia mill , roasting their own coffee in a Behmor 1600 . Helsar Del Zarcero Costa Rica No senor, not good. Not this delivery at least. Bring on another Cahuela of coffee. Costa Rica Demucilaging coffee at Helsar. Costa Rica Beautiful twilight in Costa Rica Covered drying patio with the evening skies coming through. Costa Rica 
Using enzymes to accelerate breakdown of the mucilage, a test with some stuff I brought from the US. In Costa Rica Pretty coffee cherry in Costa Rica Costa Rica Costa Rica Difference between demucilaged coffee and my enzyme experiment at Helsar – the next day. Costa Rica The cream cheese dog, in Costa Rica Hernan Solis has a private moment. Costa Rica Macho! Well, it usually refers to someone who is blond haired. Costa Rica Cabbage is great in tacos, you know. And soup. Costa Rica A photo of your favorite coffee producer means you know them really well. Or not. But Ricardo is a great guy… Costa Rica Ripe cherry at Leo Rojas Costa Rica What they remove before submitting the coffee, Costa Rica Harvesting at Leo Rojas Costa Rica Harvesting at Leo Rojas Costa Rica Total faker, Costa Rica Super model for Exclusive Coffee. Costa Rica Just don’t eat too much! Costa Rica Altos de Abejomal dog, Costa Rica Finca Bella Vista, La Loma, Costa Rica Caturra, but mixed up and crazy like. Bella Vista. Costa Rica Lots of fungus is qhat you get when you grow coffee around 1900m. Costa Rica Teh future of the Mena clan at La Joya. Costa Rica Creative raking to dry different lots and processes Costa Rica With that crazy hat – what a stylish dude. Costa Rica I know what you are thinking. You think, that’s a great photo and I am going to steal it and use it for my web site. DON’T. Costa Rica Maybe not our top performer in 2011, but solid… Costa Rica Familia Calderon, who topped the charts in CoE and want a small fortune for all their coffee now. Oh well. Adios Costa Rica!
