The story of our partnership with Café Rivense and Ureña Family has primal roots in 2019 when Piotr, our green coffee buyer, worked for a renown roastery in Vancouver. He remembers cupping their full honey caturra for the first time very well and this coffee has him enthralled straight away. So sweet, articulated, round and complex – that day he already knew that he’d love to work with Ricardo and his relatives some day. And this day has come today!

Café Rivense is a family-run micromill, established in 2005 by Regulo Ureña and Isabel Rojas. All their sons – Ricardo, Mario, Esteban and Luis – are deeply involved in running the farm. It’s located in mid-southern part of Costa Rica, in a micro region called Chirripó. It’s not that far away from the capital, San Jose, but the long and winding drive through the middle of the mountain range can pose a serious bellychallenge for many gringos.

There are three main things that we love about the Ureña’s farm and business model.

It’s how well organized it is, with each family member working on specific tasks they specialize in. During our stay at the farm we observed the full circle of their independence. Through the years of sustainable grow they’ve managed to take control of every step of the coffee production, literally from picking the cherry, through processing and dry milling, to loading and sealing the container which they export independently.

It’s the high sustainability factor. The biodiversity on the farm is amazing, with many indigenous plants and trees all over the plantations. (And all those incredible views, oh man…) The system of proper shade management, fertilization based on annual soil analysis, a truly minimal usage of water during the processes and a full traceability of the final products – this all made me greatly impressed and sure we’re dealing with 100% pros here!

Vista al Chirripo is the highest plantation at Café Rivense, located at almost 2000 masl! Chirripo is the highest mountain in Costa Rica, and “vista” means a “view”. From the top of the plantation you can not only have a view on the highest mountain in the country, but also on the geisha, caturra and a fantastic hybrid H17 coffee trees. It was coffee from Vista al Chirripo who placed 5th in the Cup of Excellence finals in 2019 and another lot will represent Café Rivense in 2021.

The highest quality is definitely here and three different lots in our offer come from this plantation: a full honey caturra, a natural geisha and a natural H17, which is a hybrid between catuai and a single Ethiopian cultivar – E531. This is one of the best coffees we cupped this year in general. So freaking excited!