COSTA RICA NEREO RAMIREZ, MICRO MILL

Fudgy with flavors of sweet cream and strawberry undertones.
Nereo is a cool, humble guy. We have a lot of respect for him and the way he approaches coffee and life. He is hardworking and resourceful, using his own organic inputs from other areas of his farm as fertilizer, and harvests all his own coffee with his family rather than hiring pickers. For the past five years we’ve been buying his entire crop (only about 35 bags!) and it is consistently one of the most balanced coffees we offer. We’ve offered Nereo premium on the normal price we pay per pound for the past two years to help him continue his improvements and expand his business.
Nereo has been farming coffee for almost two decades–for most of that time he sold his cherry to larger buyers for low differentials. He teamed up with his neighbors at Helsar de Zarcero five years ago, which is how we met. Helsar de Zarcero is a micro mill in the West Valley region of Costa Rica that works closely with about 40 coffee farmers to process their coffees and create micro lots so these individual producers can forge relationships with buyers.