Vesta Coffee Roasters is very excited to once again offer two beautiful Costa Rican coffees from long-time friends and collaborators Selva Coffee with fresh crop harvests from Javier Solis and Don Eli. It is such a joy for us to be able to offer quality coffees from such excellent producers and the teams behind them that make this possible. To be able to serve these coffees to our guests is truly something special to us.
Javier Solis is extremely passionate about coffee, his home town of Tarrazu, and his family traditions. Along with his father Alfonso, they’ve constructed a wet mill where they can process the coffees that they grow. Javier hopes to work on the farm full time in the future and is incorporating more tourism to share his passion.
Raised drying beds.
Javier and his team have been busy refurbishing, painting, and cleaning things up around the mill. Expanding fermentation and drying areas has allowed them to produce a bit more anaerobic coffees this year, and hopefully even more in the future. They have started processing coffees from Javier’s grandfather’s farm nearby. Recently, Javier and his wife have given birth to twins! Two girls! Congratulations Javier!
A frequent site at origin, a classic work horse of a truck used for transport and work.
Coffee on drying patios, it’s moved regularly for an even drying process.
The Montero Family have been visionaries, pioneers, and game changers behind the Micro Mill Revolution in Tarrazu, Costa Rica. Their name is now synonymous with exceptional coffees from Costa Rica. Carlos Montero has been growing coffee his whole life, and comes from a long lineage of farmers. His vision has been processing their own coffee fruit and working directly with roasters and consumers.
Coffee blossoms, smells sweet like orange blossom and jasmine flower.
Constructing Don Eli (his farm named after his father, in 2014) was the first step in this vision. Carlos has also been instrumental in encouraging many other coffee growers in the region to follow in his footsteps and create relationships with roasters and consumers. His son, Jacob, has taken charge of the wet mill over the years and has really honed in his passion for processing their fruit. This year, they have added a humble dry mill station to prepare their parchment for export. Always adding to their skill set, improving quality, and strengthening their direct relationships.
Carlos getting ready to plant some graduates from the nursery into their new homes.
This was the fourth season that Don Eli could peel their own parchment, but the second year that they truly sorted a vast majority of their own coffee from start to finish. Since the anaerobic lots are small, Jacob and Carlos usually sort the fruit by hand in the very end.
Fresh picked coffee cherries ready to be processed.
Coffees from these farms and farmers have always been a huge crowd favorite at Vesta. Catch them on shelves and online while we have them!
Javier Solis Tasting Notes - Blackberry, Nerd’s Clusters, Hazelnut
Don Eli Tasting Notes - Almond, Toffee, Cinnamon