Costa Rica is a small country but the diversity of climates found there and their impact on coffee production has led to a coffee industry that punches above its weight. The first coffee was grown in the Central Valley a lush, fertile region influenced by Atlantic weather patterns and this is where Las Lajas coffee, which we have been buying since 2017, is grown by the Chacon family. Six farms owned by six brothers and together comprising 73ha and a mill are located in the town of Sabanilla de Alajuela, on the slopes of the Pos volcano. The mill stands at 1,300 masl and the farms above at 1,450-1,500 masl. The mill, which produces about 2,000 exportable bags per year, is owned and run by Oscar Chacon and his wife Francisca, with help from their four children the eldest of whom took the second level of the Q Processing course in 2020.

The Chacon farms are mostly run along organic farming principles. It has become more costly and complicated to gain official organic certification and the family felt that certification wasnt adding sufficient value to their product so they let their certification lapse. However, organic principles have remained fundamental to their farming philosoph…