Description
One of the largest and most impressive coffee plantations in Costa Rica, in the hands of a sole owner in the Province of Heredia. The sale price includes a fully equipped first class coffee processing plant.
The coffee plantation is comprised of two farms, and they can be sold together or independently as follows:
Farm 1 - 250 hectares - $18,500,000 - including the coffee processing plant.
Farm 2 - 131 hectares - $4,750,000.
TOTAL 381 hectares - $23,250,000.
The coffee farms for sale in Heredia are owned by multi generation coffee families, and are planted with high quality SHB Estate Coffee. Located on the volcanic mountains of Heredia, northeast of Costa Rica's capital city San Jose, a renowned Central Valley region for growing high quality highland coffee.
In the nineteenth century, in the highlands of Heredia, Costa Rica, a family member planted with his own hands the first coffee plant in one of the farms. He patiently nurtured it and took care of it day after day until a healthy coffee tree flowered and produced one of the finest coffee beans in the world. This was back in 1876, when the family coffee tradition was initiated.
Today, you can find the same outstanding coffee planted in the family farm, which is now in the hands of a sixth generation.
Characteristics:
These coffee farms have a long tradition of being driven by total perfection and quality.
Soils: The farms produce its coffee in deep and rich volcanic soils.
Climatic Conditions: the region in Heredia provides the perfect climatic conditions to produce the finest coffee: cool temperatures (18-23 C), perfect rain patterns (2,200 mm/year), clean mountain air, and pristine rain water.
Altitude: The coffee is produced at high altitudes ranging from 1,250 to 1,600 meters above sea level. It is a well-known fact that the higher the altitude in which coffee is grown, the better the quality. The reason for this is that the coffee ripening process is slower so the bean has more time to fully develop all its characteristics of acidity, body, & aroma.
Coffee Variety: Just the best quality coffee varieties are planted in the farm, Caturra and Catuai. These coffee varieties exhibit outstanding cup quality. Other new varieties resistant to rust disease, are being planted to renovate the plantation, Like Obata and Catigua. All these factors help to create a unique and outstanding cup of coffee showing a pronounced acidity, strong body, and sweet aroma, the finest coffee Costa Rica has to offer.
Processing:
The high-quality coffee is carefully processed using the Wet Method which is the processing method that best preserves the intrinsic quality of this outstanding coffee:
After individually handpicking the cherry ripe coffee, the pulp is removed from the cherry. This operation is the key difference between the dry and the wet methods, since in the wet method, the pulp is separated from the beans before the drying stage. The pulping is done by a machine which squeezes the cherries between fixed and moving surfaces. The flesh and the skin of the fruit are left for compost used in the farms, and the beans, enclosed in their mucilaginous parchment covering, on the other. The clearance between the surfaces is adjusted to avoid damage to the beans.
The pulped beans go on to machines that quickly remove the mucilage surrounding the beans. At this stage, the wet parchment coffee contains approximately 57% moisture. To reduce the moisture to an optimum 12% the parchment coffee is dried in Guardiolas (mechanical cylindrical dryers). After drying the parchment coffee is stored and rested for 8 weeks.
In the final stage of preparation, the coffee is hulled, to remove the parchment, then passes through a number of screenings, grading, and color sorting operations in order to have it ready for export. All these processing stages are closely monitored in order to ensure that the quality of the coffee will never be compromised.
All coffee processing methods are ecologically friendly. The residual waters generated during the processing are recycled, fully treated, and purified before being released into the environment.
Social Responsibility:
The owners have placed as one of its top priorities the well-being of the families working at the farms so it provides them with free housing, running water, electricity. Workers at the farms earn one of the highest wages in the coffee industry worldwide and they are proud of it. The family has also been instrumental in facilitating medical services, education, and sports facilities to every farm worker.
Environmental Responsibility:
The preservation of the environment is of capital importance at the coffee farms. The owners are committed to produce the coffee in harmony with nature and in a sustainable way. In order to protect the soils from erosion and to avoid the contamination of watersheds the coffee is planted in contours, following the natural inclination of the terrain.
The cherry pulp generated as a waste product in the wet method processing is used as an organic fertilizer in the coffee plantation.
The dry parchment removed during the hulling stage is used as fuel to feed into the mechanical dryers.
As indicated before, the residual waters generated during the processing are recycled, fully treated, and purified before being released into the environment.
The coffee is produced with the utmost ethical values, and following the highest social and environmental guiding principles.
A taste of this exceptional coffee is an experience of several things: the rich and old tradition of producing coffee developed by a generational family, the deep volcanic soils, the high altitude where it's grown, the cup quality of its 100% arabica varieties, the perfect climatic conditions to produce coffee influenced by the mountain range where the farms are located, and coffee production systems which are in total harmony with the highest social and environmental ethics. The perfect combination of all these factors produce a unique coffee which is the finest coffee produced in Costa Rica.
