Cafe Ceres a micro mill located in the mountains of Tarrazú, a region south of Costa Rica’s capital San Jose. Micro mills are small coffee farms with their own mills and processing on-site. Established by Stephanny Fernandez Elizondo and her mother Alexandra in 2019, their mission is to achieve constant growth by focusing on improvements in quality every day.
This lot, Los Encinos, shares its name with the mill at Cafe Ceres. Stephanny and Alexandra’s work is centred in sustainability - the water usage is minimal and the cascara waste is processed quickly and efficiently. Together, they are currently working towards a Bandera Azul certification; a program working to protect both the environmental and social landscapes in Costa Rica.
The coffee cherries are sorted via floatation, fermented for 72 hours, then pulped and fermented for an additional 48 hours. Finally, the coffee dries on raised beds for 14 days. The beans are raked and turned every 2 hours to ensure uniform drying and to avoid the defects honey processed lots can be susceptible to.
Seasonal buying is about seeing coffee as a crop not a commodity, buying in harmony with the growing seasons to enjoy coffee at its best. This kind of buying has always been the backbone of our business and it’s something we’ve improved and refined every year.
