Why we still travel to origin
You don't need to travel to origin to buy coffee. Our exporting partners do a fantastic job of sending us samples, so we can make buying decisions from the comfort of our own roastery. What you can't courier across the world is time with the people who produce your coffee: time to share stories, information, ideas and good times. You'd be amazed how much comes out of a conversation on a long drive or over a beer.
In early 2023, our Green Buyer Roland Glew and eCommerce Manager Chris Glover-Price travelled to Costa Rica during the harvest to visit our exporting partners (and legends of Costa Rican specialty coffee) Exclusive Coffees, plus a number of producers whose names you'll probably recognise. It was Chris's first trip to a coffee-producing country, so we asked him to write a short diary as a little peek into the world of Has Bean origin travel.
Day 1: Exclusive Coffees and Coopeatenas
Cupping at Exclusive Coffees
Exclusive Coffees are our exporting partner in Costa Rica. They play a huge role in helping us maintain our relationships, find new ones when we need them and, perhaps most importantly, ship us coffee.
We spent time at their headquarters chatting with the team and cupping pre-shipment samples of coffees we were really looking forward to sharing that year, including some delicious Kenya-variety lots.
Coopeatenas
In the afternoon we drove about 90 minutes to Coopeatenas, the coffee cooperative in Atenas and a new relationship for us. We were looking to them for great larger lots to use in our house blends, and came away really impressed, both by their coffee production and by the work they do in and around the community of Atenas.
Day 2: Don Mayo and Granitos de Altura del Ortiz
Don Mayo
If you've been a Has Bean customer for even a few years, you've almost certainly tried a coffee from Don Mayo. We've been buying their coffee since 2011, and the Bonilla family continue to produce fantastic coffee. We were treated to a tour, in the back of a pickup truck, of Finca San Francisco, a beautiful new farm they're planting. We really hope we can get some coffee from it when it starts producing in the next few years.
Granitos de Altura del Ortiz
Another new relationship, and one Roland is particularly happy about. He'd known about Granitos and enjoyed their coffee for a while, and this was the first year we'd been able to buy any. The mill is managed and run by two sisters, Joyce and Johana Calderón, while their dad, Omar, manages the farms. It's a rare thing in Costa Rica for two sisters to be running a mill like this, and we couldn't be happier to be supporting Granitos and sharing their coffee with you.
Day 3: Don Joel and ARBAR in the West Valley
Don Joel
Day three was the first of two days in the West Valley, around 50km from our base in north-western San José. It was a real delight to visit two huge relationships for Has Bean who are close neighbours.
We've been enjoying coffee from Allan Oviedo's Don Joel micromill since 2017. He has two farms, La Cumbre and Carmela, and we got to look around both, as well as his brand new (still shiny) micromill. Two big highlights: riding on the back of Allan's tractor with a trailer full of freshly picked coffee, then helping unload that harvest and measure it into the mill using the cajuela, the standard Costa Rican measuring box. We were also lucky enough to be invited to a home-cooked lunch with Allan and his family, such a lovely and kind way to finish our visit.
ARBAR
Only a short drive up Route 709 (a road lined with farms and mills) is Beneficio de Café ARBAR, home of Carlos Arrieta and his family. We've been buying from ARBAR since 2013 and now take nearly every single bean they produce, so a visit is a fantastic chance for both us and the Arrietas to catch up, talk coffee and, together, help shape where things are going. We toured the farms, had another tractor ride, Roland had a go at picking, and we shared coffee together as the sun went down. We were staying nearby, so we also got to share a few beers with Esteban and Jose Ignacio (Nacho), talking about coffee processing (Esteban works at nearby Sumava), before dinner with the family. An amazing and unforgettable evening.
Day 4: Breakfast at ARBAR and a tour of Sumava de Lourdes
Back to ARBAR
We were very kindly invited back to ARBAR the next morning for breakfast with the family. Before we could tuck into a delicious traditional Costa Rican meal, Carlos and Nacho showed us how they process, using some cherry they'd saved from the previous day's harvest (it's normally processed the evening it's picked). It's processing on a tiny scale, and fantastic to see. We're very proud to support the quality-focused work Carlos and his family are doing.
Sumava de Lourdes
Only five or ten minutes up the road was our final farm visit of the trip: Francisco Mena's Sumava de Lourdes. If you've ever imagined what a coffee farm looks like, Francisco has created exactly that. Tree-lined plots split the farm into areas dedicated to each coffee variety. Esteban Arrieta gave us a tour of the plots, where we saw coffee being picked, measured into a truck by the cajuela and delivered to the mill.
Day 5: Cupping ARBAR's harvest with Carlos and Nacho
Back to Exclusive HQ for another day of cupping, and a wonderful chance to taste fresh-harvest coffees from ARBAR with Carlos and Nacho. Slurping coffees with the people who grew them is an incredible honour, made all the better by how delicious ARBAR's lots are. It's great to see Nacho getting more involved in cupping and tasting while his brother Esteban learns more about processing. The future of ARBAR is looking very bright indeed.
Day 6: Finca Licho with the Aguilera family
Another name those of you who've been with us for a while will know. What a treat to visit the Aguilera family, who we've been working with since 2007. We saw their mill in action and visited their farms (again, in the back of a pickup truck). There are some stunning views on Finca Licho, and the Villa Sarchi was looking very happy in the Costa Rican summer sunshine. The Aguileras mostly grow Villa Sarchi and Bourbon, but we also saw some of their other varieties: SL28, Geisha, Pacamara and Sidra. We're certainly going to try to get our hands on some.
An amazing trip, spent with lovely people. Our fresh-crop Costa Rican coffees were due to set sail in March and April, landing with us by early summer. You can read more about the people we buy from on our sourcing page, or browse our current Costa Rican coffees.
