Greetings!
12 more mills under my belt and that’s it for the Costa Rica coffee mills! I leave for the airport to catch a flight over to Panama in a few minutes here. one of my first stops is the Casa Ruiz Mill! I am super excited to finally meet a producer who’s coffee we already offer and get some sweet contacts and pics from the actual people, coffee trees and mill. I spoke with Deli cafe about them and it seems that they are some of the best, trustworthy and reliable in the Boquete region of Panama. they have worked together for years.
There are many promising mills here. every Micro mill is still different and never ceases to amaze. i had lunch at Sonora mill yesterday. The owner, Don Alberto, has a red bourbon (rare in Costa Rica) of a lot that is only about 5 bags. i cant wait to cup in on Friday!
Other than for my sourcing focus, Deli-Cafe has done a good job of showing me how coffee is done here outside of the Micro Mills. I visited La Helena Estate (Check it out at *bucks!) which produces about 30 containers a year which means about 8250 bags or 109000 lbs. this all goes the the Bucks. regardless it is a farm that 200 years old and they still have some of the Milling equipment there. walking through the mill you could really get a sense of the coffee history in this country. It was like meeting the ghost of Coffee past.
We also went to Doka Estate. when i saw this on the itinerary i almost died. i had seen it as a tourist coffee tour on a poster in the airport. Nick from Deli Cafe and I joined a group of Geriatric tourists from the midwest who couldn’t hold there bowel movements. Nick and I got a chance to explain our roles in the chain of coffee and we were happy to make there tour extra special and get all sorts of props from Doka.
There has been no coffees to cup at this point at all. i am feeling like this is turning out to be a good way to do it for the first visit. visit a ridiculous amount of farms, without any pre-conceived ideas of the coffee. judgment only based on people and growing / milling practices. the next visit we can be as picky as we want.
well, I have to be off! more tomorrow night.
-Christian