Early Bird / Costa Rica

About the Coffee

Cooperativa de Caficultores de Tarrazú, known as Coopetarrazu, brings together more than 4,650 member farmers across the Tarrazú canton in San Marcos de Tarrazu, San Jose. The farms grow Caturra and Catuai varieties at 1,300 to 1,600 meters above sea level, and the cooperative pools their harvests into La Pastora, a regional lot that has become a reliable marker of what Tarrazú coffee can be.

Every afternoon, trucks loaded with freshly picked cherries arrive at the cooperative's mill. The workflow runs on a tight schedule: cherries are weighed, floaters removed, depulped, and run through a demucilager (a machine that strips the fruit's sticky layer) using a fully recycled water system. From there, the washed parchment moves by elevated conveyor into air dryers and then mechanical dryers that bring moisture levels down precisely. The entire process takes just over 72 hours. After that, the coffee rests in silos for at least a month before dry milling, where machines sort it by weight and color before it's bagged and shipped.

Coopetarrazu does more than process coffee. Members have access to low-interest loans, healthcare, and a cooperative-run agricultural supply store and grocery. It's a structure that ties the economic health of farming directly to the daily lives of the families doing the work.

About Rosso

Rosso has been roasting coffee in Calgary for 16 years. Their sourcing approach is built around direct relationships with producers and a focus on what the coffee can actually taste like when handled well from farm to roast.