Costa Rica La Bandera

While there are many excellent, small wet mills in Costa Rica, very few can compare to the prestige that’s been earned by Diego Hidalgo at La Bandera. Beginning with the small area Diego’s family comes from between Santa Maria and Copey de Dota called La Bandera. It’s a picturesque mountain side surrounded by pure tropical forests of this Costa Rican Microclimate. Absolutely perfect conditions for growing the highest quality of unique varieties at a high altitude. Only a few years ago, it was too cold to plant coffee in this area. 

As it was quite common in his community, Diego spent a lot of time in the United States - working and saving up to invest back into his family’s coffee. When he returned to Costa Rica and Santa Maria - it was around the time of the micro mill revolution. The prices for fruit were very low and a lot of people started to process their own coffee. Diego was courageous and ambitious enough to slowly take over his family’s farm while also establishing their own wet mill to produce specialty coffee. 

Over time, Diego thought it to start planting new and rare varieties higher and higher up on the family farm. As he excelled at processing the fruit on his own he also learned how to execute various different techniques - producing some of the most cutting edge coffees out there. The expertise at La Bandera has resulted in multiple accolades at many competitions and auctions. This is a truly special producer and farm that’s made itself great over the years and will continue to do so for a long time to come. 

El Alto  is a very special plantation, because it's the highest point of a farm whose  main purpose is to preserve the natural forest where it stands. Diego and his Family decided that rather than cutting the forest down for more space and sun for the coffees trees - that they would plant the coffee trees among the existing natural landscape. While this is contrary to traditional coffee cultivating practices of the past 40 years - it is much better and forward thinking. While the decision to farm this way in El Alto is far from the easy way -  impacts not only the planet positively, but the taste in the cup as well.

We taste: Blackberry, Creamsicle, Cola