Introduction to Brunka, the coffee producing area of Costa Rica in Central America

Central America refers to the central American continent south of the United States and north of Colombia, where the topography is mainly plateaus, mountains and forests, and has a volcanic belt more than 1300 kilometers long, so there is an accumulation of volcanic ash, fertile soil and developed agriculture. mainly to grow bananas, coffee and corn and other agricultural products. As a result, seven of the eight countries in Central America produce coffee, including many world-renowned coffee producers, such as Costa Rica, Honduras, Panama and so on.

Costa Rica was the first country to start growing coffee, which was first introduced and cultivated in the late 18th century because of its commercial value. Moreover, after becoming independent from Spain, the new government vigorously promoted coffee cultivation, distributed seeds to farmers free of charge, and implemented a tax-free policy, so many people joined in growing coffee.

After that, the country's coffee was sold to England and was praised as the "golden bean" by the British aristocracy, for which the British increased their investment in Costa Rica. The Anglo-Costa Rican Bank of Costa Rica also came into being in 1863 to subsidize farmers to develop land, cultivate arable land and set up treatment plants to promote the development of Costa Rican coffee industry.

Costa Rica is mostly mountainous and plateau topography, the Cordillera Mountains run through the central part of the country, and there are volcanoes, rich and diverse biological species and vast forests. The climate of Costa Rica is mainly tropical rain forest climate and savanna climate, with the annual rainy season from April to December and the dry season from December to April of the following year. It can be said that Costa Rica has natural conditions and climatic environment that are very suitable for coffee cultivation.

There are seven coffee producing areas in Costa Rica, namely: the Western Valley (Valley Central Occidental), the Central Valley (Valley Central), the Tarazu (Tarrazu), the Sanshui River (Tres Rios), Orosi (Orosi), Brunca (Bronka) and Turrialba (Duli Alba). Almost all of these areas are distributed in the central mountains.

Among them, Tarrazu is the largest and most famous coffee producing area in the country, while Brunca is relatively common in coffee flavor, mainly growing commercial beans, but in recent years began to pay attention to and improve the quality of coffee.

Brunca, located in the south of Costa Rica, has a diverse micro-climate due to the topography and mountains connecting Panama. The climate here is hot and humid, with an annual average temperature of about 24 °C. In the recent Costa Rican COE competition, La Torre Manor from the Brenka region won the second place in the sun-honey treatment group with a score of 92.

La Torre Manor is owned by Coraz ó n de Jes ú s, which was founded by Alvarado Fonseca and his family, who began growing coffee in 2012, founded the company in 2015 and bought La Torre Manor in 2017.

La Torre Manor, a small experimental farm of only 2 hectares, was one of the first Costa Rican farms to grow rose summer varieties in the Brenka region, and one of the highest elevations in the region, up to 1950 meters above sea level. The company attaches great importance to the protection of the surrounding environment and has been seeking to improve quality by creating innovative processing techniques and planting new varieties. Participated in the COE competition for the first time in 2021, won the fifth place at that time, and proved that high-quality coffee can also be grown in the region, and won second place this year.