Coffee House Owners Tour Costa Rican Coffee Plantations

Coffee Specialist Brandon Bir recently led four Ohio coffee house owners to the source of some of the world’s finest and most sought-after coffees: Costa Rica’s Hacienda Rio Negro and Hacienda La Minita coffee plantations. During the trip, they learned about all the human touches needed to bring coffee from seed to cup.

The group included Tracy Heitmeyer of 5 Bean Coffee(Reynoldsburg), Sheri Thomas of Sheri’s Coffee House (Norwalk), Lynne Calvelage of Coffee Amici (Findlay) and Deborah Fulks of Court Street Coffee (Athens).

While visiting the two plantations, they cupped 11 different locally grown coffees. They also experienced firsthand most of the steps required to process coffee. After harvest, the coffee cherries are washed and de-pulped to prepare for the fermentation tanks. Once the mucilage separates from the bean, the beans are dried and initially sorted by machine. As an added step, workers hand-sort the beans into different quality grades before bagging the green coffee for shipment. Crimson Cup imports only the finest – Class 1, Specialty Grade – coffee beans.

Watch the video below to see what Tracy, Sheri, Lynne, Deborah and Brandon have to say about their trip to Costa Rica.

Since 1991, Crimson Cup Coffee & Tea has hand-roasted great-tasting specialty coffee in Columbus, Ohio. We’ve also taught more than 300 independent business owners in 30 states how to open a coffee shop and be successful.

Questions about opening a coffee shop? Or want to learn more about our wholesale coffee roasting programs for specialty grocers, colleges and universities and restaurants and food service operators? Give us a call at 888-800-9224 or fill out this form, and we’ll get back to you within one business day.