Costa Rica Don Oscar Yellow Honey

The family coffee business behind the Don Oscar farm and wet mill, now managed by brothers Horacio and Alejandro Solís, is in its fifth generation. Their father, Oscar Solís, a lifelong coffee farmer, was instrumental in the building of the family’s own processing site, in 2013. Since Don Oscar passed away, the brothers have remained stewards of the family coffee legacy. With a management team made up entirely of extended family and a staff of 75 to manage the 60-hectare estate, the Solís brothers are now in charge of a large portfolio of coffees and guided by generations of experience.

Costa Rica has been well-known for many years for having large, stable, supportive cooperatives and an environmentally-friendly agricultural sector. Despite the benefits of cooperative farming, a “micro-mill revolution” began in Costa Rica in the early 2000s, as small-scale centralized processing sites began emerging on family estates. This local entrepreneurship and access to select farms created a brand new market for Costa Rica. Individual farms became brands and competition increased, resulting in higher prices, and a range of cup profiles that Central America hadn’t seen before suddenly renewed the roasting world’s appreciation for Costa Rica’s potential. Exclusive Coffees, an exporter focused on quality assurance, marketing, and logistics for micro-mills, was at the forefront of the revolution and has deep relationships throughout Tarrazú as well as the West and Central Valleys, and Chirripó.

Coffee is a year-round effort for the entire Solís family and one that requires rigid consistency. The Don Oscar farm is planted entirely in coffee and receives soil analyses annually, as well as foliar feedings to maintain plant stability. The family has employed the same pickers, a group of indigenous families from Panamá who come to Costa Rica for work, for over 10 years in a row, and whose experience they value greatly. Processing equipment is regularly calibrated by local experts, and drying is managed using a system of patios, raised beds, and mechanical dryers, for the purpose of keeping drying times slow and consistent regardless of local weather patterns. The overall goal, according to the Solís family, is to guarantee that the “life of the bean” will be as long as possible for their buyers. The Solís brothers are also planting Gesha, Pacamara and Java varieties of coffee for future micro-lot projects.

We treasure our relationships in the global coffee community and invest in projects at origin to support our partners in their commitment to environmental sustainability and social welfare. We also invest in reducing our day-to-day impact, through initiatives like energy-efficient Loring Smart Roasters to reduce carbon emissions per batch by 80%.

As a certified B Corporation, we are a leader in sustainable practices that impact people and the planet. This third-party certification requires us to demonstrate transparency and accountability throughout our supply chain and quantify the impact our business creates for our employees, the community, and the environment. We are proud to be part of this community working together toward one unifying goal: using business as a force for good.