The road to La Minita snakes sharply up the volcanic hillsides of the central Costa Rica.  The sunlight beats down through a clear and cloudless sky highlighting the dramatic colors of flowers and foliage.  Smudges of brilliant red, purple, and yellow grace the rolling green canvas rising in front of you against the steep slopes.  One soon realizes that the narrow and pitted road, with its constant twists and turns, is a small price to pay to experience this place.  And as your truck edges dangerously close to yet another sheer drop, you can only smile as you steal one more glimpse of paradise.

La Minita is an estate coffee farm, one of the most well-run and respected in the world.  Estate farms manage the total coffee producing cycle--from seedling to processed bean-- to ensure the rich, distinctive taste and high quality of their signature brands.  Rows and rows of coffee trees, which have been manicured by La Minita employees to their neat, bush-like stature, bring a sense of structure to the unspoiled, jagged landscape.

                

Somehow you struggle out a few words of Spanish; the driver responses by slowing the truck just enough for you to grab a low-hanging orange from one of the many fruit trees lining the road.  As the dirt-encrusted 4x4 creeps forward you spot a group of coffee pickers resting near the roadside; they too are enjoying a snack of oranges.  It is the middle of harvest time, "La Fiesta del Cafe", when up to 500 laborers, including about 100 full-time year-round employees of La Minita, converge on the nearly two million coffee trees dotting the farm's 700 acres.

                                        

This article was written by Mr. Rich Ricoh, a visitor to Hacienda La Minita.

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