Costa Rica

MICEPA

Micepa is a project by several coffee producing families in the Chirripó region of Costa Rica. Micepa is an abbreviation of Microbeneficio Cerro Paraguas, the region in which the micro-mill is based. Rigoberto Araya Borbón leads the project, which processes the work of the 10 member farmers, surrounding the village of Piedra de Rivas. The project was founded 10 years ago by 7 of the farmers, but several of their sons, including Rigoberto’s, began to produce coffee and have joined Micepa in the years since. The 10 producers in the project have an average of 5 hectares of land each, so they increase their access to market significantly by working together.

Chirripó

Costa Rica

We buy coffees from a long spine of Costa Rica, running through the country’s capital San Jose. This spine is famous for high quality coffee production the world over, resulting in high prices for farmers. One of the reasons for this is plentiful high altitude, the Talamanca Sierra runs through the region, with peaks of above 3000 masl. The main spine is split into 3 regions, the West Valley and Central Valley to the north of San Jose, and Tarrazu to the south. This year, we have also purchased from the Chirripó region for the first time, Tarrazu’s neighbour to the south, and home to Costa Rica’s highest point.

In all of these areas, but especially in Tarrazu, agriculture and coffee growing is a main employer, vital to the economy. In fact, the population of Tarrazu is multiplied by three during harvest season, when workers flock to the region for the high wages paid to skilled pickers. The entire spine is mainly of volcanic origin, helping to provide fertile soils conducive to the production of consistently high scoring coffees, which we keep going back for.