San Lorenzo Natural

Five minutes down the road from central San Marcos, where CoopeTarrazú have their main wet and dry milling facilities is the community and district of San Lorenzo. Consisting of not a huge amount more than a main street with a school and the characteristic defining features of a church and a football pitch, it quickly gives way to a network of coffee farms. Stretching up the hillsides to the south of the town it lies at the very heart of the Tarrazú region. Over 200 producers in the area contribute to the community lot each year. Natural processed coffees are harvested fully ripe when the cherries are a deep red then transported to the local mill by 4pm to be sundried. This will take between 15 and 30 days with a temperature of between 21°C and 28°C.The coffee is cupped many times to ensure quality. First when dried, then two weeks later after being rested in silos, and again after 4 weeks.

The community lot project is a way of returning additional premiums to improve infrastructure such as roads and provide schools and health centers more locally. Being community focussed, the producers favoured this communal approach rather than one of individual recognition that was viewed as a gateway to introducing envy and jealousy amongst their neighbours. This way, they work to improve all their lives and feel much more rewarded for doing so.

Being so close to San Marcos, cherry can be delivered directly to the main receiving centre or by one of the roadside stations such as the one on Ruta Nacional Treciaria. With prices published daily and over 60 micromills in the area, convenience is vital as well as offering good prices and any additional value adds such as improvements to infrastructure or community enhancement.

Producers are not tied in to the cooperative, so incentives such as organic fertiliser is provided for free based on the weight after pulping the cherries. CoopeTarrazú have 6ha dedicated to this. All the cascara from the mill is dried, then moved every 3 days. Micro-organisms are added to be an aerobic process which speeds the composting process from 300 days to 100. They leave the pulp at 70°C to reduce the volume and get only 70% weight as the yield. Wood chips are added to balance the nitrogen in the coffee pulp (80% pulp, 20% wood).