Last year we had an amazing new coffee, one that blew my mind how good it was. So much so I nearly gave up my house and all my worldly possessions to get it.

I first got to meet a guy called Carlos at my Costa Rican exporter’s office on the last day of my time in Costa Rica last year. He arrived around 10 minuets after I had cupped the first table of coffees, where I had found one lot that was making me sing. It just had to be his.

Here ensued the worst negotiation for buying coffee ever. I start “How much do you want?” He replies “How much do you like it?” I reply “A lot” he replies “I’d like a lot then please” to which I replied “OK”. Luckily at this point a grown up from the exporters stepped in and made sure I didn’t give Carlos my house and my car and my pension plan, and agreed a price that rewarded Carlos more than he had ever gotten before and left me with a home to return to.

Back then this coffee was just called Carlos Arietta, as this is all we knew about it.

This year on my return visit I got to spend some time with the family, stop for some lunch hang out and ask lots of questions. There is the mill first of all called Arbar. At Arbar which is very close to the house they have drying tables and a small nursery. They don’t have a deplulper, but more about this later. This is new, as before they would just sell their coffee to the local coop so have no interaction with the coffee.

Also on this years visit, we have build on the relationship, not only getting the Finca Oasis (I found out the name finally) but also we bought his other farms coffee called El Manatial.

You may notice that this coffee is priced differently. Our normal nicely rounded down prices are not there. This years coffee should sell for £7.50 (we negotiated a small price drop this year as we bought everything from both farms, and this works out thats theres some economies of scale compared to the £10.00 of last year). But were charging £7.88. Well this is so we (by we I mean you) can buy Carlos and his family a depulper for next years harvest. So he doesn’t have to pay someone to pulp it, and can get more and more control of his amazing coffee, and improve quality even more.

You can go see what your generosity has bought as I leant the money to Carlos as I promised you would pay it back at the in the photos below (I hope your good for it).

So drink amazing coffee, and feel good that your making someones life happier in every cup.