Costa Rica Volcan Azul

This complex, juicy natural coffee from Costa Rica is the result of our first direct relationship with Volcan Azul and its owner Alejo Castro. With three farms and a mill, and several Cup of Excellence victories to his name, Alejo is at the forefront of coffee experimentation while also building on generations of coffee knowledge.

The Volcan Azul microlot is composed of the San Isidro variety, which is a specific line of the Sarchimor group of varieties, named for the town close to Volcan Azul. Sarchimor itself is a hybrid of the Villa Sarchi and Timor varieties, developed to be more resistant to coffee leaf rust.

The coffee is grown between 1500 and 1700 metres above sea level. A natural processed coffee, it is dried using a combination of sun drying and mechanical machines known in Central America as Guardiolas.

Aside from producing high quality coffee, Volcan Azul’s other focus is on conservation. In the 1980s Alejo’s father began purchasing land in Costa Rica’s famous Osa Peninsula in order to protect it, and today they look after over 1500 hectares. The Osa Peninsula has been called “the most biologically intense place on earth” by National Geographic, and is home to myriad animals like jaguars, wild pigs, monkeys, and over 400 species of bird.

This is in addition to the work they do on their farms, which ranges from rejecting herbicides in favour of bees—from which they also gather coffee blossom honey—to complementary planting to discourage insects.

Coffee arrived in Costa Rica in 1779 and has had a huge influence on the country's economy, culture, and politics ever since. It was at one point the country's only export, and continues to be an important source of income for its 50,000 coffee farmers.

The government of Costa Rica pushed to grow the industry upon its independence from Spain in 1821, exempting coffee from certain taxes and at one point decreeing that anyone who used fallow land to grow the plant for five years could claim it as their own. Until 1890 coffee was the country’s sole export, and income from these exports funded infrastructure like railroads and hospitals.

Today the majority of Costa Rican growers farm on five hectares or less, and most don’t have their own mills so freshly picked cherries are delivered to private- or cooperative-owned mills for processing. Some farmers have invested in their own mills in order to better control the final product, which has led to a wide range of different methods and flavours coming out of the country.

Did you know?

• On the eve of Costa Rica's independence from Spain in 1821, the local government distributed free coffee seeds in order to promote coffee production and bolster the economy.
• At one point in the 1830s the bulk of coffee from Costa Rica was exported to England via Chile, rebranded as “Café Chileno de Valparaíso” after the Chilean port town from where it was shipped.
• As of 2019, 22 percent of Costa Rica’s coffee production is considered low-carbon and sustainable, with nearly 9,000 producers on 25,000 hectares reducing their carbon emissions by 72,000 tons of CO2.

Sources: Mercanta, World Atlas of Coffee, Sucafina, NAMA Cafe

Our speciality coffees are 100% traceable and ethically sourced. We work direct with farmers, or through trusted partners, to bring you the best coffee from around the world.

Sourced directly from: Volcan Azul
Producer relationship length: 2 years

Costa Rica is a world leader in sustainability and conservancy. The country produces nearly all of its electricity from renewable sources, and almost a third of its land is protected.

Coffee plays a major role in the country's sustainability movement. As a research paper in 2019 put it, "It's impossible to tell the story of modern conservation without coffee and Costa Rica." And as coffee continues to be threatened by climate change, the country's leading role is becoming ever more important.

Since the 1990s farmers have been incentivised to cordon off part of their land for conservation, and such biodiverse areas have shown themselves to be beneficial both for the environment and for the farmer themselves. One small example: more trees mean more birds, and many birds are useful pest control operatives on coffee farms as they like to eat the coffee berry borer beetle.

Alejo's family has been conserving land since before he was born, mainly around their farms but his father has also bought additional land solely for conservation. He specifically looked to protect land in the Osa Peninsula, which has been called “the most biologically intense place on earth” by National Geographic.

“We’re really proud of this conservation area,” Alejo told us last year. "We have over 1500 hectares in that region. My father started in the 1980s before global warming was a trending topic.”