We arrived to the West Valley town of Naranjo in the early afternoon, at which time we had to remind Francisco that normal people tend to eat a few meals a day, so we stopped for lunch at a local “soda”, a Costa Rican name for an informal eatery where we enjoyed some nice tacos.  The more time we spent we Francisco the more we liked him – he’s so animated and passionate about his cause, it was refreshing and exciting to hear him talk.

Our first visit was in Lourdes de Naranjo, a narrow ridge in the West Valley that is home to several great quality producers.  The first of these producers are the Aguilera’s, a family of 12 (8 brothers and 4 sisters) who all tend to their farms.  We spent time visiting the mill and chatting with Antonio, the oldest brother.  Antonio is soft-spoken, respectful and kind.  He was very gracious and walked us around the farm and showed us their operation.  The location of the mill is nothing short of spectacular, lush cliffs from every angle, and in the distance, a bright lime green clearing.  The Aguilera’s are huge soccer fans so they cleared some of their land and built a beautiful soccer field where they play every Sunday and host local soccer tournaments with the neighbouring farms.

Our second visit was to a well known producer called Herbazu, there we were greeted by Antionio Barrantes Zuniga who owns and runs the mill.  They were actually processing some coffee at the time (end of harvest – last pickings) so we had a chance to speak with them about their operation, which by the way was very well run.  From there, we quickly visited Jaime Cardinal Rojas, the animated character behind Cafe Sin Limites, another great producer from the region.

Our last visit of the day was to Los Manantiales mill.  This mill is managed and operated by Oldemar Arrieta Lobo and his son Francisco Javier.  The mill was responsible for the first place coffee in the 2008 Costa Rica Cup of Excellence.  Unfortunately, we arrived as dusk was setting in, so it was tough to really see the on-goings at the mill.  Nevertheless, we had a great chat with Oldemar about his view on coffee quality and the micro-mill movement.  Oldermar has three beautiful farms, Finca La Casa, Finca Fidel and Finca El Zapote that he operates and he processes all of his coffee at Los Manantiales mill.  We spoke about his plans to setup his own micro-mill to have better control of his processing and we agreed to meet the next day to visit his three farms.  At this time, it was 6PM and we had not even experienced what would become the highlight of the day.

Our next visit was both memorable and unbelievable.  We went to visit a wonderful gentleman by the name of Gillio Francesa Ferraro.  Gillio is a tender, elderly man.  We’re not sure exactly how old Gillio is, but he puts in a harder day than most people we know.  He has a Jeep that is so patched up that would most certainly be deemed illegal in Canada.  He also happens to have a small high-altitude lot of land that he harvests and processes himself (in his backyard basically).  Gillio was warned by Francisco that we would be stopping by but we were running about three hours behind.  Nonetheless Gillio was so intent in us having a great experience that he left behind some of his coffee that he was planning to wet mill that day so that we could all mill it together – so we did just that.  In the pitch of dark, we fired up his Penagos 500 (a tiny wet mill) and proceeded to de-pulp three buckets of cherries (beautifully ripe I may add).  Then Gillio gave us a tour of his “bodega”, his workshop and his drying patio.  We hadn’t tasted Gillio’s coffee yet but we were pretty sure we were going to try to buy some of it.  Gillio made a big impact on us, he was kind, gentle, inviting and by the end of our conversation, we felt that we had been friends with Gillio our entire lives.  Later on on our trip, we personally called Gillio to tell him that we cupped his coffee, we loved it and we were going to buy it.  His response was very gracious.

After our epic visit with Gilio, we met up with Ricardo Perez and Marvin Rodriguez (they run the mill Helsar de Zarcero) for a wonderful steak dinner.  The conversation with Ricardo and Marvin was so interesting, it felt that there just wasn’t enough time. By the end of the night, Ricardo drove us to our chalet and agreed to greet us in the morning with a “mystery” breakfast.

We awoke to a beautiful sunrise and a majestic view from our chalet.  As promised, Ricardo showed up with our surprise breakfast, which consisted of local bread from a nearby bakery and fresh, local cheese from a couple of producers down the hill.  To top it all off, he roasted some of his mill’s coffee that morning and brought his french press and made coffee for us.  It’s the kind of welcoming gesture that makes Ricardo such a special man.

After breakfast, Ricardo took us to see his organic farm, Santa Lucia.  His farm was quite lush and visibly well kept.  Our next stop was Marvin’s farm, Los Anonos, which is also organic and is perched on quite a cliff.  We had a chance to walk/scale down the farm and meet some of the pickers, who were Panamanian.  Ricardo then took us to meet Manuel “Macho” Arce, owner of the farm Finca don Chepe; a farm that grows well kept, young caturra trees at around 1600 meters.  Macho also has a dairy farm and makes his own cheese.  When we visited him, his son had just finished a fresh batch of “queso fresco” (cheese curds) and he brought some out to share with us.  Once again, the humility, friendliness and generosity of the Costa Rican people continued to impress us.  We had cupped Macho’s coffee the previous day and it was certainly one of the standout coffees, so it was very nice to speak to him for a bit, get to know his farm and understand the man behind the coffee.  Our final stop with Ricardo was a visit to his mill, Helsar de Zarcero, which among others, processes Macho Arce’s coffee.  Ricardo runs a very good mill and he has been rewarded over the past few years by placing high in the Costa Rican Cup of Excellence.

Our afternoon was spent with Oldemar and his son, Francisco Javier.  Francisco Javier picked us up on his pickup truck and took us through some bumpy roads to the first of their farms, Finca La Casa.  As the name suggests, this is a farm that is literally, right on their back yard.  We stopped in for a quick drink at his house, and not to be outdone, Oldemar’s wife, Marlen, greeted us with refreshments, melon, oranges, pineapple and watermelon.  From there we went to visit Finca Zapote, a farm we were very interested in visiting since its coffee had cupped quite well for us the day before.  Zapote is on a lush ridge and also features very well kept caturra and villa sarchi trees.  Our final visit with Oldemar was to his third farm, Finca Fidel.  This may be the most beautiful of the three farms, it’s on the side of a ridge so the view is spectacular and to get there, we had to cross a little river with a waterfall and what looked to be a jungle-like rainforest – the drive alone was incredible.  Our time with Oldemar was very informative, since we spent a long time talking about his cost of production, his desire to improve quality and his plans to start milling his own coffee.

In the early evening, we met up with JJ and Wayner, who were waiting for us with over 40 coffees for us to cup.  These flights featured some of the farms that we had already cupped and visited in the West Valley and also a number of coffees from the region that we would visit over the next two days: Tarrazu.