Communities - Costa Rica

Costa Rica Naranjo West Valley (SHB and Peaberry)

We have been buying coffee from the West Valley Cooperative Naranjo, for a few years now. We have been consistently impressed by their ability to produce top quality strictly hard bean (shb) coffees in years when the rest of the country’s crop was not so good.

In April 2002, James Sweeting a Director of Lincoln & York was invited to be part of an International jury of coffee tasters to judge fine quality arabicas from all over Costa Rica. While there he formalised the relationship with Naranjo to the extent that we are now proud to advertise this fact.

Naranjo is a co-operative and there are over 3000 farmer members. Each farmer brings his coffee to the co-operative to be pulped and milled. The benefits to the community are immense. By being a member, the farmer and family have access to their own supermarket, wholesale supply business and social club as well as on hand agricultural expertise.

The farms are situated between 3000 and 5000 feet above sea level. Produced in volcanic soil the coffee beans are uniform and have a delightful sweetness.

Most of the parchment is sun dried (see below). The advantage to this is that the coffee taste develops naturally, in its own time and becomes more balanced and sweet in cup.

We use Costa Rican arabicas in most of our filter and espresso coffees. However to truly appreciate them they can be drunk on their own.

We are actually buying 2 types from Naranjo. The flat (SHB) bean and the highly prized peaberry bean. Less than half a percent of the crop is this type of bean and Lincoln & York buy most of it. We recommend this type in its pure form through filter or cafetiere.

Naranjo Football Ground