During two days in November, 2010 three women who live nearby picked 25 cajuelas of coffee cherries here at Quinta casi el Cielo. A cajuela is an ancient measure of volume, the Costa Rican official measuring box is about 1500 cubic inches.
We usually sell our harvest to the Beneficio Diamonte, the coffee processing plant of the local farmer's cooperative for 1,300 colones (about $2.50) each. But, needing coffee for the house and for you, I took the freshly picked fruit to a small beneficio in Altos de Naranjo where they will batch process it for us in the old way. This entails sun drying, separating the fruit from the seed, drying and hulling the seed and then toasting the final green bean. Geraldo Capulina specializes in organic coffee which he roasts and sells ,but batch processing for neighbors brings him a little extra cash.
After green and damaged fruit are removed the remaining cherries are expected to finally result in about 35 to 40 kilos of whole grain, medium roast coffee beans.
Costs
to pick 25 cajuelas of cherries 32,500 colones
to process as above 75,000 colones
packing bags 21,000 colones
for a total of......................128,000 colones
Using 35 kilos, 70 500kg bags will end up costing... 1,836 colones per bag or $3.29 per pound.
If you have tried Cafe casi el Cielo I am sure you agree that it is as good or better than "gourmet" coffee costing $10 to $14 a pound and more. After that calculation I decided to do another 25 cajelas or so from the second harvest cycle.
Son George is working on a label. He wants me to process the entire harvest next year so that he can sell it in West Virginia. Maybe, but lots of hurdles before that is possible.
