COSTA RICA LA AURORA BLACK HONEY GESHA

COUNTRY: COSTA RICA

REGION: SANTA MARIA DE DOTA

GROWER: VARIOUS SMALLHOLDERS

MILL: SOLIS AND CORDERO MICRO MILL

VARIETAL: GESHA

ELEVATION: 1500-900 MASL

PROCESS: BLACK HONEY

NOTES: pineapple, honeysuckle, cinnamon

10 oz of whole bean coffee

Producer and coffee information courtesy of Selva Coffee:

Ivan Solis is a success story built on the foundation of the coffee producing culture of the growing region, Tarrazu. Today, he is somewhat of a coffee magnate in the prestigious micro region of Santa Maria de Dota - he seems to know about all the farms and people comprising his beloved, small town. However, Ivan had to struggle and earn his way into the position he is in now from extremely humble beginnings. His hard work ethic, passion, experience, and vision have brought him to create the Santa Fe wet mill with his wife and 3 kids. 

Ivan’s grandparents were also farmers in the Dota area growing various fruits, vegetables, and livestock - as well as some coffee. As fate would have it, none of what the grandparents had was passed on to Ivan’s parents, but was distributed amongst their other siblings. Ivan’s father had a troubled upbringing as the grandfather suffered from a mental illness that caused him to lash out severely. Nonetheless, he worked hard as a contracted farm hand and even spent time helping at the local cooperative, CoopeDota. Ivan’s dad saved up and eventually was able to purchase his own small farm as he married Ivan’s mother and started a family with 5 children. Sadly, his father had a problem with alcohol and as a result his life ended too soon - when Ivan was only 2 years old.

Ivan had to grow up quickly and was brought up in a single, working mother’s household. His mom had to be a strong woman raising 6 children and working a lot to support them. Ivan would eventually have to help himself and the family by working when he could. He got his start at CoopeDota, carrying wood and running the fires that heat the mechanical dryers - even having to clean out the lagoon where all the mucilage from processing was thrown out to decompose. After that, he worked for his older sister’s husband who was employed by a very large mill named La Meseta. The company was widespread over Costa Rica and had fruit receiving stations set up in every region imaginable. Ivan’s job was to assist truck drivers go and pick up the fruit from each of their receiving stations and clean them out for the next day. He attributes his deep knowledge of all the farmers and their plantations all over Tarrazu to that experience. It also really taught him the meaning of hard work and instilled in him the determination to make a better life for himself through sacrifice and work ethic. 

As La Meseta began to deteriorate, Ivan returned back to his roots and went back to work for CoopeDota. Again he started at the bottom, but got the opportunity to move around the company and take on different responsibilities over time. He worked as a fruit measurer, processor, dryer, loader, dry milling, so on and so forth. Ivan says that this decade was a golden age for the world famous cooperative. Eventually, he became in charge of the entire processing operation and a prominent figure in the community of the town of Santa Maria. He continued to grow and learn throughout this experience and even got the opportunity to take a 2 year coffee processing course put together by the University of Costa Rica and the National Coffee Institute. Additionally, he went on to get his Q Grader Certification as far back as 2009. Let’s just put it this way - Ivan knows a thing or two about coffee, he has seen everything, and has been doing it for years on a very high level. 

As fate would have it, things at CoopeDota were starting to change and evolve and after so many years - Ivan’s time at the local economy engine would come to an end. With his savings, some help from financial institutions, and his family they would go on to start Solis & Cordero micro mill in 2017. It truly is a family business that Ivan enjoys using as a tool to teach his children the meaning of earning a living and continuing the family tradition of coffee production. It is also in place to support many of those same coffee growers that Ivan got to meet while picking up coffee fruit from receiving stations as a young man. We are big fans of this started-from-the-bottom story and the excellente coffee that this family is able to put out with passion, hard work, and tons of experience.

Ivan has a deep knowledge of all the farmers and their plantations in the area. In this case, he worked with good farmers that grow great quality Geisha in the micro region of Santa Maria de Dota, Tarrazu. Ivan receives the well selected fruit at his wet mill and the cherries are sent through a floater and into the pulper. The seeds are removed from the fruit and they leave as much mucilage as possible in order to dry with all the sugars. The coffee is then quickly put out on raised beds in a thin layer to dry as homogeneously as can be. The whole family is involved in making sure the coffee gets turned and moved frequently from beginning to end - which typically takes about 15 days.