In the early 1990's, Chuck and Donna Ask retired from Colorado to the rural, idyllic lifestyle of Costa Rica. Here they happened upon a very unique, smooth and flavorful coffee. To be sure there is a lot of coffee grown in Costa Rica and Costa Rican coffee is famous for its smoothness and flaver, but this coffee was something special, very aromatic, full body yet no aftertaste. This coffee, it turns out, was being grown by an ecologically-minded family on a small farm located on the slopes of the Irazú volcano, near the town of Cartago.
The family was growing their coffee using all-natural techniques (the term "organic" hadn't come into fashion yet). The family had built their own coffee mill or benificio consisting of a de-pulper, a washing system and concrete drying beds, so they had complete control over the entire harvasting process from sprout to export.
Many people don't know this, but coffee cherries don't all ripen all at once. Instead they ripen at different rates, for example a perfectly ripe coffee cherry may reside next to one that is a week or two away. To pick cherries when they are best means they must be hand picked and the picker must go out into the same fields many times. Our farmers hire local workers called peones ("pay-OH-nays") to harvast only those cherries that are perfectly ripe. This is the basis of our coffee's being extremely flavorful yet smooth in body.
Another interesting aspect of the farm in Costa Rica is that the coffee is shade-grown, also referred to as bird-friendly. This means the indigenous rainforest canopy has been left intact, rather than clearing the forest to maximize planting. Many species of migratory birds, insects and other creatures such as frogs and lizards live in these shady coffee farms. By growing coffee amongst the natural fauna of the Costa Rican rainforest we ensure that the many nutrients found in roots, decomposing plant matter and the natural mineral content of the volcanic soil are all retained, further adding to our coffee's intense flavor.
Many large commercial growing operations clear cut the native flora and plant their coffee trees in machine accessible rows. When picking time comes they pick everything at one time- ripe, underripe and overripe alike- this reduces costs but also introduces imperfections into the harvast. We aren't naming names but a particular large coffee company with thousands of shops worldwide gets most of their coffee from commercial operations that are not earth nor worker-friendly.
Further elaborating on the all-natural chemical free growing process utilized by our farmers, once the coffee cherries have been picked at their ripest perfection, the coffee beans inside are extracted (de-pulped) then the pulpy outer part of the cherry is piled high onto compost heaps, to be used as fertilizer the next season. Many if not most large commercial coffee mills simply dump the pulp waste into local rivers to be washed away. The beans are then sun-dried on concrete drying beds, a process that slowly reduces the moisture content to a suitable level before bagging and shipping.
Chuck and Donna knew this coffee was special and to help the struggling family they agreed to pay a fair price (approximately three times the going rate at the time) and agreed to purchase the entire crop each year. They didn't know it back then but Cafe Cartago became one of the first "Fair-Trade" coffee buyers in the world. Once back in the US they invited their good friends, Lance and Lucy Lindsay, to join them and in 1993 Cafe Cartago was born. In 2004 the company was sold to Steve and Lynda Larsen, longtime customers with a passion for coffee!
We are located in Denver Colorado USA, the "Mile High City". Here at over 1 mile (1.6km) above sea level the air is much thinner and much drying than at sea level. Because of that we benefit in 2 ways: all of our beans maintain a relatively consistent moisture level year round and, due to the high altitude, the beans take longer to roast. We have found that slow roasting produces an exceptionally smooth coffee with a near neutral pH that doesn't affect one's stomach as many other coffees do. Although we've outgrown what that little farm can produce, we still use their crop in our "Irazú Estate Coffee". And from those modest beginnings we have grown and expanded our offerings. While our mainstay is still specially grown coffee from Costa Rica, we are now applying our slow and careful roasting techniques to other varietals, with great success.
