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Hacienda La Minita: Our newest Factory Reserve -
7/13/2011
Posted By:
Steve Hawthorne
In my role as Green Coffee Buyer, I give a lot of presentations to our staff and customers about how we source coffee. One of the most common questions I get is, "how do you find the farms that you buy from?" The story is different for each farm...the story of how I found our newest Factory Reserve from Hacienda La Minita in Costa Rica.
Several years ago, when I was jsut beginning my role as Green Coffee Buyer, I was contacted by a sales person that told me about a Costa Rican coffee that would "blow my mind." Feeling intrigued, I asked him to send a sample...I also asked him for pricing. He politely told me that he would prefer that I try the coffee before he told me how much it was.
A few days later, an express mail package arrived with the sample he had promised. The coffee was labled "Hacienda La Minita." I had never heard of this farm, but I roasted the sample and then sat down at the cupping table the following day. The moment of truth....as I took my first sip, my eyes shot open and my taste buds were dazzled by complex flavors of citrus, berries and milk chocolate. I was so excited by this coffee that I decided to take the remainder of the sample and brew it in a French Press for my coworkers to try...the reaction was the same across the board...this was one of the best coffees we had ever had.
After the excitment calmed down, I called back the saleperson to ask how much this magical coffee cost...his response was almost as shocking to me as the tasting experience! This coffee was more than $4 per pound! (keep in mind that this was long before the recent price spikes and at a time when $4 per pound for a coffee was unheard of) Being relatively new in my position and unsure of how we could afford such a high end coffee, I politely declined and went about my business.
Now, fast forward to just two years ago. I had just been accepted to join the Specialty Coffee Association of America's Sustainability Council and was attending my first meeting in Anaheim, CA. I was meeting my fellow council members and learned that one of them had recently joined the sales team for La Minita Coffee Importers...a part of the organization that owned and operated the farm producing the coffee I had sampled years before.
Now, two years later, that gentleman (Scott) and I have developed a good professional friendship. I learned more about the La Minita Farm and all of the great work they do there to produce this amazing coffee. (you can read a bit more about the farm here)
We're very excited to have Hacienda La Minita Costa Rican as our newest Factory Reserve. I hope to visit La Minita in the near future to see for myself the work they are doing there. I look forward to bringing those stories back to share with you. Until then, grab a pound and remember to sip slowly.
-Steve
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