If you are looking for a little slice of Eden in the coffee growing world, I suggest a visit to Finca La Amistad in southern Costa Rica near the border with Panama. Abutting the vast Parque Internacional La Amistad, one of the largest forest reserves in Central America, the farm is a continuation of that protected habitat, producing organically  grown coffee on land completely covered by shade trees, with streams and waterfalls laced throughout the parcels, corridors of forest separating sections, and an abundant bird and butterfly population that seem to accompany your every step on the farm. All harvested coffee is both wet and dry milled on the farm, with the energy to run that operation provided by hydropower generated from farm stream flow, and all processing wastes returned to the farm as compost. Amistad is a beautifully enclosed ecosystem in a stunning setting.   

The Montero Zeledon family has been growing coffee on Finca La Amistad (nee Hacienda La Amistad) for over 100 years.  Located a short walking distance from the Panamanian border, the family established the farm not long after the border lines were drawn between Panama and Costa Rica in the early 1900’s.  In the 1980’s, the farm management fell into the hands of Roberto Montero, the 4th generation of the family on the farm. Not long after taking the reins, Montero made the radical decision to go organic as he witnessed both his and his neighbor’s farms fall victim to the dependence on the agrochemical package of coffee “technification” that had taken over Costa Rica in the 70’s and 80’s. The starkly uniform, shade devoid farms produced prolifically for a few years, but this was inevitably followed by a cycle of low productivity and infestation or disease, as the naked soils were depleted and the lack of biodiversity on the farms provided little defense to pest and fungal invasions. The usual solution at the time was to find another chemical to solve the problem.  

Finca Amistad is sizeable by any measure. While much of the farm is still in forest cover and some pastureland, there are still well over 250 hectares of planted coffee, ranging in altitude from 1200 meters to 1600 meters. Production is respectable but still only about 1/3 to 1/2 of that of a typical conventional farm in Costa Rica. Apart from the very highest altitude parcels, the entire coffee farm is covered in shade trees, and this year the farm has obtained Bird Friendly Shade Grown certification from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Council (SMBC), the only farm in Costa Rica to achieve this certification. The coffee at the highest altitude spends most of its time enshrouded in a cloudy mist, turning a dark maroon color as it matures, hence the name “Purple Haze” for the beans grown up on these parcels and sold separately and in limited quantities from the other coffee on the farm. 

We're so thrilled to share this coffee with you! Remember to leave us a review and add a photo to earn more beans, for more discounts!