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Costa RicaCoffee Cultivation On The La Minita Estate

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La Minita Coffee Region: Tarrazu Estate: Hacienda La Minita Elevation: 3,900 – 5,400 feet Varietals: Caturra, Catuai Red, Catuai

Yellow, Tipica Hibrido Processing Method: Washed, Sun-Dried(?) Screen Size: 16

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Cultivation ProcessStep 1: Planting Seeds

Young coffee plants are usually nursed in shaded areas until they sprout.

Once they sprout, the plants are moved to an individual plot of carefully prepared soil.

Sprouted plants are planted during the rainy season when the soil is moist. This allows for the roots to more easily establish themselves.

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Cultivation ProcessStep 2: Harvest

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Coffee cherries are hand-picked at least three separate times during the harvest season.

This ensures that enough time is given to pick only the ripest cherries.

Unripe cherries are the worst kind of defect.One of them can ruin an entire lot of coffee.

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Cultivation ProcessStep 2: Sorting

Coffee cherries are conglomerated by the farmers onto large trucks.

Cherries are dropped into large tanks of water.

Density of the beans determine buoyancy.

The highest quality beans sink quickest to the bottom and are separated from the next three lower quality grades.

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Cultivation ProcessStep 3: De-pulping

Once separated, the coffee cherries are pushed through a screen which separates the pulp from the mucilage surrounding the cherry.

Once de-pulped, these cherries are forced by an auger through the proper channels which then lead them into the fermentation tanks.

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Cultivation ProcessStep 4: Fermentation Timing is crucial during

the fermentation stage; it is critical that the beans are removed from the tanks at the precise span of time where are neither overly fermented nor under fermented.

Great care is given to the timing of this stage of the process. Any mistakes will damage the flavor profile.

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Cultivation ProcessStep 5: Drying

The fermented beans are then funneled into large drum-shaped drying machines.

The temperature inside can be raised no higher than 135 degrees Fahrenheit.

On La Minita’s Rio Negro Estate, the dryers are fueled mostly by coffee parchment, which burns at an efficiency rate of 85%. The other 15% is covered by conventional wood fuel.

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Coffee CultivationStep 6: Hulling

Once the beans are dried, they are forced through a hulling machine, which removes the parchment from the bean.

Beans are then sorted by weight for final inspection and packaging.

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Coffee CultivationStep 7: Inspection

Each bean is examined by hand before finally packaged into shipping bags.

This stage of cultivation is exclusive to the La Minita Estate.

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Coffee CultivationStep 8: Export

After the examined beans are packaged into bags, they are loaded onto trucks.

From Hacienda La Minita, they are transported to port for final export.

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