ICON 70 - Los Cipreses, Washed Gesha

Coffee cherries in Costa Rica were traditionally sold by producers to large commercial buyers, who handled the pulping, processing, and milling before the coffee was sold on as green coffee. In recent years, the country has seen a shift toward micro mills - smaller, family or community run processing stations that let producers process their own cherries rather than sending them to a large mill. Some serve a single farm whilst others serve several farms grouped into an association or cooperative, which helps members share costs such as bulk fertiliser purchases and access to development funds. Producers report several benefits from this shift: processed green coffee sells for more than raw cherries, so producing and milling their own coffee raises what they earn; it lets them create coffee with its own identity, including micro-lots that can command higher prices, rather than having it blended with hundreds of other farms' cherries; and it gives them a more direct sense of ownership and pride in the coffee they sell.

The micro mill model has also brought environmental gains, using mechanical washing rather than the traditional pulp-ferment-and-wash method: mucilage is cleaned from the seed mechanically instead of removed through fermentation, which uses less water and allows water to be recirculated after filtering out skins, reducing wastewater. This same mechanical process is largely why Costa Rica has become a pioneer of honey-processed coffee. By adjusting the mechanism, producers can control how much mucilage stays on the seed: white honey has almost none remaining (under 10%), giving a cup close to washed coffee, while yellow and red honeys retain more mucilage and tend to be sweeter, with more complex acidity. Producers can also vary their drying methods to further shape the colour and character of the resulting honey coffee, giving coffees from the same mill distinct profiles.

In 2020, the Salazar family installed a small mill and greenhouse at the lowest point of the farm, around 1,680 masl. Here they began processing part of the harvest themselves, mostly as honeys with a small volume of washed and naturals.. Honey and semi-washed lots rest in bags for a few hours before moving to African raised beds to dry over approximately 12 days. Their yellow honeys are turned hourly and darker honeys less frequently, allowing more fermentation to take place.

Los Cipreses is located in Naranjo, in the West Valley of Costa Rica and takes its name from the cypress trees grown on a partnered farm, which are sold as Christmas trees each December. The farm has been in the Salazar family for four generations and for all that time the family sold their coffee to local cooperatives. Then in 2018 as the C-market plummeted towards $1/lb they began to rethink their strategy and led them to focus on the international specialty coffee market.

The business comprises two farms and a mill: San Cristóbal (10 ha) and La Isabella (13 ha), named after Max Salazar’s parents. Max runs the farms alongside his cousins, Cristian and Greivan, and his uncle, Danilo. Originally planted mainly with Typica and Villa Sarchi, the family has since added Villalobos, Catuai, Caturra, Gesha, Ethiopian varieties, Milenio, and SL28. New varieties, including L12-28, are trialled in the nursery for a year before planting. The farms’ varied terrain has created several microclimates, each requiring its own approach to processing by slope and orientation; strong winds are a recurring challenge in the area, and the region’s coffee was badly damaged by Hurricane Nate in 2015.

Naranjo is a region shaped by Pacific weather patterns and consequently drier than the Central Valley. At higher altitude with mild temperatures, strong winds, and views of the Pacific, the area’s microclimate allows coffee to mature more slowly, generally producing more body and texture.

Production has been lower since 2017: harvests once reached 600–700 fanegas (1 fanega = 250 kg of cherries) but have since settled closer to 300, with a notably small mid-harvest volume, the period that typically yields the highest-quality coffee. Max manages coffee leaf rust through a strong fertilisation program and rust-resistant varieties rather than spraying, avoids herbicides, and controls weeds through mulching. Alongside coffee, the family raises 50 head of cattle in San Carlos, though Max dedicates most of his time to coffee and is active in the specialty coffee and barista scene in San José, favouring long-term relationships with a small number of clients over wider sales.