Las Lajas – Direct Trade

Las Lajas is located in Sabanilla de Alejela Costa Rica near the base of Poas Volcano. The farm is at 1200 meters and grows Catuai and Catura. The west Central Valley is the location of some of the best coffee in Costa Rica. Francisca and Oscar Chacon are third generation coffee farmers since 1840. When Oscar’s father passed away he inherited 5 hectares at the age of 18. He and his mom kept the legacy alive. In 1997 Francisca and Oscar were married.  Francisca attended University in Costa Rica for an agriculture degree in coffee.

In 2006 they started milling their our own coffee. The first years production was about 20 bags. Now the production has increased to over 2000 bags with nearby relatives contributing coffee.

The Chacon’s started experimenting with naturals when an earthquake hit the San Jose area and water and power were out. This was the middle of harvest so they figured if they can do the process in Africa then they would try it. The results were amazingly different than what had been done in Costa Rica to date.

Las Lajas is one of the few farms in Costa Rica growing Organic coffee and have perfected the natural and honey processes. They are constantly experimenting with these process. They produce many versions of the honey process called white honey, yellow honey, red honey, black honey and the fully natural Perla Negra which was used as a finalist in the Barista Championships and also Alma Negra.

Las Lajas was the leader in Honeyed coffee process in Costa Rica. They are stuarts of the land with much of their production being Organic with minimal use of water to process the beans. The Chacon’s are meticulous in their process using a brix meter to know when to pick the ripe coffee beans from the trees.  With their own dry mill on the property they have control of the complete process from growing and processing to export.

Red Honey- 100% mucilage left on.  Coffee is turned  only a few times a day.

Perla Negra- is 100% Natural process where the whole dried cherry is turned on raised African beds.