Roast Profile: Medium
Flavor Profile: This coffee has a good body, fruity acidity, excellent aroma and intense flavor.
Certification: organic and shade grown

This certified organic and shade grown Costa Rican coffee is grown at the famous Hacienda La Amistad. The estate has developed an innovative system to combine the native species from surrounding primary (old-growth) forests with its plantation. The vast majority of La Amistad’s forests are preserved untouched, with a ratio of nine hectares of forest for every hectare in cultivation. In addition, the coffee is grown with shade plants that naturally produce nitrogen and improve the quality of both the soil and the coffee crop, while providing habitat for native fauna, birds, mammals, and helpful insects. The high diversity of life in the plantation allows beneficial insects and birds to exercise biological control of pests, while the soil is constantly regenerated with nitrogen from shade plants, natural compost from pruning, and soil microorganisms and invertebrates that thrive in this healthy environment.

Between the coffee plants, the ground is covered with many other kinds of plants, pruned by hand and trimmed by sheep. This ground cover ensures that the soil is soft, aerated, and protected from erosion. The soil is enriched with organic fertilizer made from coffee pulp from the previous year’s crop mixed with ashes from the drying kilns, sawdust and chicken manure, and then processed by earthworms ( known as vermiculture).

The coffee leaves are fertilized with liquid produced by earthworms, while cow manure residue serves as a natural pesticide. The forest surrounding the plantations hosts dozens of species of parasitic wasps and flies that destroy plant pests, while the large bird population living in the coffee groves and forests feeds off insects and other small animals. The coffee groves constitute a lively, healthy ecosystem.

Workers at Hacienda La Amistad

Picking the ripe coffee cherries

Shade grown coffee at Hacienda La Amistad