Costa Rica - Fuego & Segura

William is a small coffee producer who has fought hard to raise his young family. He, his wife and his two young children depend exclusively on coffee for their livelihood.William grew up producing coffee with his father, and started his own farm after receiving a small plot of land as innheritance. For many years he sold his coffee to local intermediaries, and both he and the rest of his neighbours were unaware of the quality of their coffee and the possibility of entering the specialty coffee market.William decided to follow the recommendations of Luis Campos, our partner in the region (Cordillera de Fuego Dry mill), who instructed William on how to process and dry the coffee in order to find international buyers.
The process used in the farm is very specific; the coffee cherry is added to the stainless steel tanks with the mucilage left on. The tanks are airtight, and the absence of Oxygen stimulates a Thermic fermentation process. The process develops a unique series of acids such as lactic and malic which will translate to a very complex flavor. Once ready the coffee is 100% sun dried.Cordillera de Fuego wet mil has implemented many small projects to reduce the water usage and increase efficiency, but one of the biggest projects they have done is the installation of solar panels, with these panels the main office is able to run on 100% solar energy plus the solar panels also supply more than 50% of the energy for the wet mill. He is also looking to keep improving his farm and betting on new varieties with a better cup profile to be able to sell the coffee at higher prices and keep improving the general quality of life for his family.