Description
Producer |
Cristian & Greivan Salazar |
Farm Gate |
4,47$/lb |
Region |
Los Cipreses, Valle Occidental, Costa Rica |
F.O.B |
4,50$/lb |
Variety |
Villa Sarchi |
F.O.T |
12,95€/kg |
Altitude |
1700 masl |
Context |
Farm gate was paid for wet and dry-milled green coffee. |
Process
|
Red Honey | ||
Flavour |
Red Apple, Wildflower Honey, Juicy & Clean | ||
Importer |
Planting Costa Rica |
In March 2023 I was lucky enough to visit Cristian and have a tour of Los Cipreses, the farms and micromill run by him and his brother Greivan. It was the very first coffee farm I have ever visited, so you can imagine how magical this was! I was lucky enough to see the exact trees this coffee came from and eat a ripe coffee cherry from one of them. It was a huge eye opener and showed the masterful work that Cristian is doing with his honey processes. This coffee tastes every bit as clean, juicy and vibrant as the cherries fresh from the tree.
We are now buying everything these trees produce from now on, meaning this coffee is exclusive to us. 2022 we received 90kg, 2023 yielded 220kg and the current 2024 harvest came in at 390kg. What is most remarkable is the amazing consistency of the coffee. Every year has been beautifully sweet and juicy!
Thank you Cristian and Greivan for producing the prettiest coffee I have had the pleasure and honour to roast!
Want us to grind your coffee?
We sell all our coffee as whole beans to preserve their freshness and to allow you to grind the coffee to suit your preferred brew method.
However, if you'd like to request that your beans are ground before we ship them to you, please add a comment on the checkout specifying the brew method that the beans should be ground for.
Brew methods:
- Pourover
- Filter Machine
- Aeropress
- Bialetti
- Espresso Machine
- French Press
Transparency
How We Buy Our Coffees
Raw Material
Raw Material are a Community Interest Company based in the UK, meaning that 100% of profits are put to work to create economic freedom for those coffee producers who are most marginalised. Driven by social objectives, the guys at Raw Material are set on bringing real change to the people who matter most! All of our coffees from Rwanda, Burundi, Timor-Leste and Mexico are bought through Raw Material because they don't just do great social work, they also have some of the most delicious coffees out there!!!
Planting Costa Rica
Nico from Planting Costa Rica actually used to be a barista at Café Blá! Now he's importing amazing coffees from his native Costa Rica. Through his successful 2017 crowdfunding campaign, he was able to start addressing the socio-economic gap, helping small producers wanting to move into speciality growing and processing practises modernise and improve quality. We have been following the progress from the beginning, buying lots from El Bueyerito every year. The progress made in terms of quality has been amazing! Now with a wide and exciting range of partner farms, we are really excited to continue buying our Costa Rican lots from Nico. In March '23 I was lucky enough to be able to go to Costa Rica with Nico and Fatima and meet all of the producers we have been buying from and more! Costa Rica is a wonderfully green country, with a lot of positive green initiatives and government agencies helping keep the coffee trade fair for those who are most important, namely the farmers.
Osito
Osito are a relationally based company with operations in Colombia, US and UK. With their recent expansion into the EU market, I was very happy to start working with them for our future Colombian and Brazilian lots. They work on fixed price contracts with their producers, fixing price points well above the C-Price, taking into account the current costs of production.
Omwani
Omwani are a UK based importer, importing coffees from East Africa. They work with projects all of the most well known producing countries like Ethiopia and Kenya, but also in less-seen countries like Malawi and Uganda. The projects they support are all specific to what is needed in the country, looking to bring economic freedom to smallholders and producers, whilst also tackling area specific issues, such as climate related diseases, access to fresh water, healthcare and education. Starting in 2025, we will have their Ethiopian, Kenyan and Ugandan coffees as a part of our coffee menu.
Plot Coffee Project
Plot Coffee Project is the import project from Hamburg's Elbgold. They focus on nano and micro-lot coffees from carefully selected producers, who are dedicated to not just high quality, but also to sustainable farming practises.
What does "Powered by Vits.coffee" mean?
Café Blá is owned by Jacob Henry-Foord and Alexander Vits. Jacob is head roaster for Vits der Kaffee, Alex's roastery and café.
When Stephanie made the decision to sell Café Blá, for whom we have been roasting the coffee since its opening in 2016, I (Jacob) approached Alex with the idea of taking on the café as a joint venture, specifically with the idea of moving the Vits third wave coffee selection over to the Blá brand, thus creating a new sub-brand from Vits.
So as not to confuse the loyal Vits customers, we decided to add the tagline "Powered by Vits.coffee," seeing as the coffees are roasted in the Vits roastery by the Vits head-roaster, who also just happens to be co-owner and CEO of Café Blá.
Confused? We hope not!
Put in short: Café Blá coffee is sourced and roasted by Jacob in the Vits roastery.