Our latest offering from the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica is from a farmer named Minor Jimenez, who is growing incredible coffees on his family farm. Minor comes from a long line of coffee farmers, but has recently decided to begin milling and processing coffees himself to increase quality. By doing this, Minor and his team can identify the best lots from his farm and control every step of the process, from planting to post-harvest.
Tarrazu Minor Jimenez is a spectacular example of everything we look for in a Costa Rican coffee. Sweet chocolate flavors similar to a candy bar, punchy lemon-forward citrus, and a creamy mouthfeel all contribute to this especially tasty and unique offering. Look for all of those tingly citrus and smooth cream notes if brewed using filter methods like a pourover, and more sweet chocolate candy flavors in immersion brewers like French Press.
Check out our video interview with Minor Jimenez here to learn more about his story!
The following coffee benchmarks have been collected with the help of our importing partners and farmers. Firelight Coffee uses this information to understand and verify the sustainability of each coffee prior to purchase. All information was freely shared by our importing partners and/or the coffee farmer or producer. Sustainability scores were determined by Firelight Coffee based on an evolving set of internal scoring methods and are subject to change. Click to expand each section below the graph for more details.
| Organic Farming | |
| Is the coffee certified organic? | No |
| Has soil analysis been done to determine the optimal fertilizer need? | Yes |
| Is the appropriate amount of fertilizer used on the farm? | Yes |
| Has the use of most synthetic fertilizer been reduced on the farm? | Yes |
| Has the amount of herbicides, specifically Glyphosat, and pesticides been reduced to no more than once per year? | Yes |
| Is any water treatment done for the water used to process the coffee? | Yes |
| Regenerative Farming | |
| Does the farm have at least 30 shade trees per hectare? | Yes |
| Does the farm have at least 50 shade trees of 3+ types per hectare? | Yes |
| Is there adequate soil coverage on the farm to promote soil protection? | Yes |
| Has irrigation been limited, only being done on top of covered soil? | Yes |
| Has the use of Chloride been limited? | Yes |
| Has the use of Chloride been stopped completely? | Yes |
| Is there increasing biodiversity in plant and animal life on the farm? Explain | Yes |
| Is there succession based biomass present on the farm (e.g. grass cover crops, pioneer trees, climax trees)? | Yes |
| Are all defensive and fertilizing inputs used natural and regenerative? | Yes |
| Is waste properly disposed of on the farm? | Yes |
| Does the importer have a plan to seek increased environmental efforts at the farm level? | There is no specific plan in place, but Minor’s farm is already far along in sustainability efforts. |
| Environmentally Conscious Transport | |
| How far was this coffee transported via container ship? | Puerto Limon to Newark Port – 2785 mi (2420 nm) |
| How far was this coffee transported via land/truck? | 1749 mi |
| Buying Strategy | |
| Is the coffee price set according to the C-Market? | No, the importer works with the farmer to determine price based on their need (production cost) and quality. |
| Does the importer pay producers directly or through a cooperative or other third party? | Directly |
| What is the FOB Price? | $4.20 |
| Fair Price for Labor | |
| Is the FOB price in line with the Specialty Coffee Transaction Guide? | Yes |
| Does farmgate (amount paid to the farmer) cover the cost of production? | Yes |
| Does farmgate provide a living wage above cost of production? | Yes |
| Working Conditions | |
| Is the farm fair trade certified? | No |
| Do you have an assessment of the risk of child labour, forced labour and human trafficking in your region? | Yes |
| Do you have an assessment of the risks of discrimination, workplace violence and harassment, including sexual and gender-based violence in your region? | Yes |
| Do you have policies and procedures in place for identifying, mitigating, preventing, monitoring and remediating child labour, forced labour, human trafficking, discrimination and workplace violence and harassment, including sexual and gender-based violence? | Yes |
| Philanthropy | |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to increase gender equity in this growing region? | Yes |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to increase local education opportunities? | Yes |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to alleviate extreme poverty in the region? | No |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to increase access to sustainable energy? | No |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to build, maintain, or increase access to local infrastructure? | Yes, they are providing transportation in the region and building roads for farm access. |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to increase access to clean water and/or nutritious food? | No |
| Does the importer have a plan to partner with the producer to support the local economy through job creation &/or infrastructure maintenance? | No |
From Todd, Co-Founder of Firelight Coffee:
Minor Jimenez’s coffee represents our continuing shift toward more traceable and sustainable year-round coffees. For origins that we stock consistently, like the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica, our goal has always been to develop long-term partnerships with individual smallholder farmers that will allow us to keep these coffees in stock and affordable, while giving the farmer and their family the stability afforded from forward-booking (committing to buying a set amount of their coffee well in advance). The benefit to you, the coffee drinker, is greater transparency into the coffee supply chain, more consistency, and almost always a much higher quality coffee. Relationships like this are difficult to find, but worth the effort! We hope you enjoy Minor’s coffee.
From our exporting partner, Selva Coffee:
Minor’s Story
Minor Jimenez is a down to earth family man who is extremely passionate about quality coffee. Together with his wife and extended family, they founded and operate La Cumbre which is both a wet mill and coffee roaster. Minor has been surrounded by coffee his entire life – coming from a prominent growing family in the renowned Tarrazu region. He has always found a deep love and appreciation for coffee and the yearning for taking it to new levels. The young family became craftsmen of their product, starting both a processing station as well as a local roastery. First, pulping their fruit with neighbors and drying the parchment next to their house, but today they have finally established their own micro mill. This is the first harvest from their new structure.
Lot Description
La Esmeralda is one of Minor’s most prized lots and his first choice to process fruit from the plantations his family has to choose from. This particular plantation is located just to the north of the family’s residence in the town of San Lorenzo de Tarrazu. This has been a long known high quality producing area for coffee growing in the area due to its drier climate as it is more exposed to the sun. Since the family has been growing large amounts of coffee for so long they really know how to manage their plantations. The most important thing is to work in harmony with the surroundings and focus on quality.
Processing
The Jimenez have a very close relationship with the harvesters which come to collect coffee during the season. They really make sure that they are well accommodated and there is an understanding of how to operate in the fields. The outcome is that some very well selected coffee fruit arrives at the wet mill. Minor allows the fruit to rest and take on a slight ferment in large piles overnight before pulping the next day. The coffee passes through their nice, new system – getting cleaned up and removed of some of its mucilage. Afterwards, the parchment is put out on raised beds in thin layers to be sun dried for around 10 days.
Read a full review of this coffee at the Coffee Review website.
