Story of the Treasure Manor of the Rivense Rivas people processing Factory in the Brunca production area of Brenka, Costa Rica

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Today, let's talk about the bean search team and the owner of the Costa Rican manor.

The story of the love and growth of coffee!

It was 2015, and when Lianjie's cup testing and purchasing team tested samples of the Costa Rican COE cup that year, they noticed a coffee with heavy honey treatment.

That place of origin is unfamiliar to boutique coffee buyers all over the world.

It is not the famous Tarrazu, nor the West Valley that sprang up in recent years, let alone the Central Valley with a history of 150 years.

The town of Rivas in the "Brunca" producing area, which is located about 150km southeast of the Costa Rican capital San Jose (three and a half hours' drive) and 3000m above sea level, is enough to cause tinnitus / dizziness (mild mountain sickness? Only after the high altitude area can you enter the remote coffee producing area, which has always been regarded as "unable to produce good coffee".

Fortunately, perhaps because some COE judges did not prefer heavy honey treatment, Treasure Manor ranked 33rd that year, allowing Lianjie to bid at a fairly economical price and then introduce …

After the goods arrived in October 2015, this batch of beans with a total of 1400 kilograms sold out in less than five weeks!

We are very surprised to realize that Taiwanese businessmen / consumers have excellent appreciation ability and love of high-quality beans.

Due to the transparency of the COE bidding, the owner's son also found Lianjie, took the initiative to contact and invited us to visit the manor in the coming year.

So we went to Rivas for the first time in March 2016 and stepped into the Brunka producing area, which is rarely visited by international coffee buyers.

This manor, which has been in operation for about thirty years.

It was created by the current owner Regulo Gerard (Regulo Gillard).

It was originally a hillside for animal husbandry.

The lowest point is about 1200 meters, and up to 2000 meters--

He started growing coffee from the lowest point and divided it into five coffee plantations according to altitude and slope direction.

Over the next 20 years, he sold coffee berries to the town's processing plant, like most coffee farmers at the time.

Spend all your energy on taking care of the coffee tree and your family. However, this kind of income is not very good, but also unstable!

Until the trough of international coffee futures prices in 2002, Costa Rica began the "micro-processing plant revolution". Many farmers hoped that their micro-batches of beans would gain the insight of international boutique buyers and forever break away from the terrible commercial coffee price cycle.

Riguro has no one to imitate at all.

In the absence of international boutique buyers, they resolutely decided to invest tens of thousands of dollars to buy a set of "Penagos" micro-honey processing equipment (and named this new microprocessing plant-- Rivense Rivas processing plant).

Bet the whole coffee business and the future of the family on an unknown.

But this is not an impulsive decision! He loves and delves into the farming and treatment of coffee, just like bean hunters / roasters / baristas around the world, transportation / preservation / baking / blending / brewing / appreciation. And all kinds of important links... Soon, he mastered the secret of honey treatment! As for how to maintain the health of coffee trees and produce coffee seeds with rich contents, it is already very familiar to him. However, the cruelty of the reality is that before 2015, after the harvest at the beginning of each year, it is very difficult for Treasure Manor to find discerning buyers and are willing to buy these excellent beans at a reasonable price.

But he wasn't depressed... Is to continue to refine their agricultural methods and treatments, and began to participate in the Costa Rican COE Cup competition.

From being able to make it through the first round of domestic selection, and then only one winner short of the international selection in 2014.

Finally, I won the 33rd place in COE in 2015! As a result, in addition to contacting Lianjie Coffee through international bidding, they also had their first visit to the SCAA Baker Camp in 2016, and that was the first time that SCAA visited the Brenka production area, and the manor has been connected with international boutique coffee buyers ever since!

When the international buyer of Lianjie Coffee first visited them in March 2016.

Due to the long-term lack of funds and resources, the warehouse is very small and crude / the equipment such as shelling and refining is old / some beans can only be placed under the canopy to keep out the wind, rain and sun.

Seeing this situation, when the two sides discussed the price, we offered a significantly higher offer than other excellent estates in Costa Rica.

We propose such a price with only one condition: we hope they can make good use of this income to invest in the expansion of warehouses and the upgrading of refined processing equipment.

We sincerely hope that such support can not only stabilize bilateral relations, but also stabilize and increase the quality of the manor in the next few years, so as to undertake more orders from international coffee people. in order to sustainable and even develop better boutique coffee production capacity!

And the manor lived up to expectations. In just one year, they doubled the warehouse size, invested tens of thousands of dollars in refining equipment, replaced another honey processing equipment with higher production capacity, and added a greenhouse for dried honey to treat coffee. A new two-story guest building has also been built for international visitors!

In 2016 we visited the manor alone, but in 2017 there was a hustle and bustle from Northern Europe / the United States / Canada. Foreign visitors from other countries!

Some even Long Stay, who lived in the guest house for several weeks, helped to learn the various aspects of coffee bean processing during the harvest season.

Amazingly, even the third wave of the world's boutique coffee pioneer Blue Bottle coffee, almost at the same time as Lianjie excavated this manor / processing plant, expanding the purchase of Rivas processing plant year by year!

Looking at the great progress they have made over the past year, we really feel the beauty of this career from the bottom of our hearts. Of course, more importantly... It is this year that I began to discuss with the owner a new method of honey treatment, which is a method that has never been heard of in the world.

And before the end of the season, we tried some-- although the first batch of treasure manor was standard black honey treatment, we also received some samples of "new honey treatment"--

And they are indeed very special and have potential! We will choose at the right time to give you a chance to try this bean--

Fortunately, there is a group of coffee-loving self-bakers in Taiwan who also have a large number of consumers with extraordinary appreciation.

Therefore, it is a great honor for Lianjie Coffee to work with you, with the landlord, and with the emergence of boutique bean buyers all over the world. All together in this story. And fortunately, this story is not over yet, and it still has to grow and thrive with you.

And this ongoing story, let's continue from tasting the "treasure" from Costa Rica--

* * this year's Rivas processing plant, although did not win the COE, but that is because the ACE organization raised the winning standard …

Once again, one of the works of the processing factory won the 32nd National Award (National Winner)-and won a bid of US $7.20 / lb a few days ago, which is even higher than the $6.00 of the 29th National Award.