El Salitre
COSTA RICA
Johnny Alvarado and his family runs several farms in the Chirripó Mountain, also they operate their own micro-mill, named Corazón de Jesús, which processes the crop of the family and nearby farmers. Chirripó, one of the highest mountains in Costa Rica, is one of the lesser-known coffee-growing regions due to its extreme altitude of over 2,000 metres above sea level. Its microclimate gives us fantastic coffees such as this natural-processed Red Catuai.
Johnny’s parents, Jhon and Katthya, started their family business back in 2015, with a focus on the production of specialty coffees. They are having multiple farms around the Brunca region, also, they have their own micro-mill named Corazón de Jesús, which, in addition to processing the family’s own crop, also serves the surrounding small producers as part of a sustainability program. The Alvarado family built their business little by little and by today the whole family is contributing to it, including young Johnny and his three brothers. Their plantation, El Salitre, is located at an altitude of 1950 metres in the 3800-meter-high Chirripó mountain. The coffee cherries are selectively harvested by hand then transported to the mill on the same afternoon, where they are slowly dried on raised beds for about 30 days. To ensure even drying, coffee cherries are regularly moved and covered in case of strong sunlight and rains.