Finca el Quetzal - Costa Rica 2015 Verified listing

When I was a little boy all my family had to participate in the coffee picking and, since the harvest was during the vacation months, me and my brother used to pay with this money our school supplies and also helped our parents with the house expenses. It wasn't something we loved to do but in our house, it was mandatory.

We bought this farm in 2001, it was next to our fathers coffee farm and he convinced us to buy it.  In 2010 I came back from the US, where I had gone since 1994, to work and save money, all which was send to my family here in Costa Rica . And since then I have been taking care of the farms.

Why the name Quetzal? On our property we have a “Dama” tree, which is very famous for its juicy fruits that birds really like. One day during our daily duties we saw this amazing bright colored bird on the top of the tree, so beautiful that we decided to call this miro lot, of 7000 Red Catuai coffee plants, el Quetzal. This farm is on a very pronounced slope, so it is planted on small terraces that help the transportation of the coffee. We also have a lot of avocado tress that work as “umbrellas” on the rainy season avoiding erosion of the soil and give shadow on the dry season.

The coffee pickers come from Panama, we have about 25 pickers that will work for tree months, save and then go back to their country, just like I did with my brother some years ago. The rest of the year I take care of the farms, always with the supervision of my father, even thou he is retired he always is watching that the farms are impeccable.

My father was member of Coopedota since 1966, but after watching some of our neighbors, like MonteCopey, and what they were doing and with their encouraging we decided to build our own micro mill and process our own coffee, Exclusive Coffees helped us find clients around the world and we started receiving our own clients on our mill. To get to know the people that buy our coffee makes us very proud.

Last year was a very hard year or our family, we lost our dear mother, we did not celebrate Christmas or New Year's we were just starting to learn how to process our own coffee and those were very difficult times. Now I know she is better where ever she is and we would like to thank God for everything he has given us. This award as 2015 CoE Finalist is something we will never forget and that we carried near to our hearts… Dear Mother this is for you, we love you!!