Hacienda La Minita was founded on the principle that coffee is much more than a commodity and should be enjoyed as luxuriously as an exquisite glass of wine or a gourmet meal.
What still gives us our advantage after all these years is our ownership and hands-on management of coffee farms and mills. We are on the ground every day, nurturing each coffee tree, supporting our employees, cupping all pre-shipments and arrival samples, and striving to get the best coffee possible into the hands of coffee roasters who are seeking the highest quality and standards that La Minita offers.
When William McAlpin founded Hacienda La Minita — our flagship farm located in the breathtaking region of Tarrazú, Costa Rica — he was determined to grow amazing coffee. Bill’s vision included a coffee that was grown, nurtured, harvested, milled, and prepared for export under one roof. In the 1980s, roasters in the United States were still in the very early stages of marketing coffee from single farms, and Hacienda La Minita was a pioneer of this Estate Coffee concept. Sales and marketing of La Minita Estate by prominent U.S. roasters was instrumental in raising the bar for green coffee quality and cup distinction across the industry.
As the demand for La Minita coffee grew, we branched out and began to trade other high quality Costa Rican coffees, which were also processed under our own management. In 1991, La Minita started a project in southern Colombia that would eventually lead to a long-term partnership with the Vasquez family and our own milling operation in Antioquia. Over the years, we continued to develop strong relationships with millers and exporters who shared our vision for quality. Today, we import coffee from most of the primary coffee-growing regions, and our list of offerings is expanding each year as we establish new partnerships with producers around the globe.
Since 2014, we have been a part of Ito En — a vertically-integrated global tea and beverage company. We fit into their group of companies as a quality-minded, vertically-integrated coffee trading company, and we have been encouraged to continue our operations under our original mission. Our vision is still very much focused on quality, and our dedication to our customers’ success remains paramount.
We take great pride in the loyal relationships we’ve been able to create and maintain over the years with our employees, partners, and customers. It is our goal to remain a leading voice in the specialty coffee conversation and to continue sourcing high-quality coffee with the same socially-conscious and environmentally-sound practices as we have since the beginning.