Our Coffee Farm: Finca Idealista
We are coffee farmers like our partner producers. Our farm, Finca Idealista, sits next to a nature reserve, whose trees are a natural air conditioner for our paca, caturra, bourbon, pache, and a few pacamara beans. Our cool microclimate lengthens the coffee cherry maturity process, allowing beans more time to absorb natural sugars for a sweet, flavorful cup profile. In addition to washed coffee, we produce out-of-this-world naturals and honey process that can be reserved before they sell out (contact us).
Our workers receive the highest wages around. Pickers select only the reddest cherries so the farm’s crop reaches its highest level of sweetness. Our living coffee museum provides high-cupping seed varieties to partner producers of Gold Mountain Coffee Growers. Read about and see our environmental practices and social impact below.
 On Finca Idealista we only pick the reddest, sweetest beans for your roastery, leaving green or multi-colored cherries for another day |  Surrounding trees are an air conditioner for our coffee in a unique microclimate |  Visitors to our farm can see different varieties of coffee growing in our live coffee museum |
|---|---|---|
 Clearing weeds away from coffee seedlings, which we are protecting from too much sun with a roof of banana leaves |  We're above the clouds! |  Paca variety coffee trees flowering on Finca Idealista. It takes a year for them to become coffee beans and a long journey to reach your cup. |
 Baby coffee plants on Finca Idealista |  We float this coffee in water to clean berries even before processing and further washing later. Later volcanic filters clean the water to protect the environment. |  Tree frog |
 Our volcanic filters prevent runoff and clean water after wet processing |  Our volcanic water filtration system |  Organizing small library of books for our community's school. This is the first time students ever saw chapter books! |
 |  Finca Idealista is high-up, resulting in a cooler microclimate ideal for long bean maturations (giving you a sweeter cup of coffee) |  We painted our wet mill coffee cherry red. |
 The farm's water source |  Our lush coffee trees |  Clouds rise up to our farm's altitude |
 Natural process coffee drying. Strawberry pie with natural sugars cupping notes! |  |  Planting "Pache" variety coffee. This variety grows less tall and is easier for pickers to reach. Great tropical fruit cupping notes! |
 Drying coffee on African beds. |  Our farm's water source |  Coffee takes a long time to mature into red beans ready for picking |
 Baby coffee not quite ready for planting |  |  We support the local school with various educational initiatives |
 Baby coffee |  Only the red coffee cherries on this branch will be picked |  Each morning the clouds rise from the valley below Finca Idealista up to our altitude, with rain usually falling in the afternoons |
 Imperfections float to the surface and are separated so they don't end up in your cup! |
Partner Producers
When our farm (Finca Idealista) sent its first 22 bags of coffee to the United States, other producers asked for help connecting with international markets. They were not receiving prices that would allow them a decent standard of living, despite certifications designed for that specific purpose! We cupped every single lot of their coffees and selected only the highest-cupping ones for export. Neighbors started copying neighbors with high-cupping coffee, even planting entirely new varieties to improve scores. We now know which partner producers are a great match for your roastery and which will improve their lives while knocking your socks off with cupping quality. Partner producers improve their standards of living by connecting their high-cupping coffee with roasters--installing solar panels and new processing equipment, expanding their farms, improving their houses, and more.
 Coffee should be partially dried before transport down the mountain |  |  |
|---|---|---|
 |  Check out Don Balvino's Maragogype coffee! Beans are the size of almonds! |  We work producers in a variety of microclimates |
 |  Dona Luz receives credit during the off-season to be able to support her family and improve her coffee's yield |  |
 Check out Ronald's perfect catuai coffee lush with nitrogen from the soil! |  Baby catuai coffee trees will someday be an awesome microlot! |  This solar drier allows partial drying of coffee even when it's raining |
 Dona Sebastiana is at the ends of the earth! We've given her family long-term loans to renovate their coffee |  This family has both solar coffee drying infrastructure and solar power! They purchased it with income from coffee sales. |  We installed running water in the school of this coffee community and are working hand-in-hand with producers on high-quality specialty coffee production |
 We connect producers to the banking system |  Handing in coffee at the dry mill |  This family has nine children, which is common in rural Nicaragua. |
High-Quality Processing
We use refractometers, ripeness teams and ripeness bracelets, treating coffee farms like fine wine vineyards whose fruits must be picked at peak ripeness. While other mills have eliminated human beings from sorting, we believe human eyes should give a last revision to your coffee on conveyor belts, ensuring that when our crops reach you they reflect all the hard work involved in growing them during an entire year. We use special food-grade packaging to seal in freshness and ensure excellent cupping scores are maintained from origin to your roastery. Our staff oversee drying, hulling, storage, exports, and imports, maintaining quality along the entire supply chain to your roastery.
 wristband for ripenessOur ripeness police are a constant presence on farms of partner producers. They teach pickers to pick only the ripest coffee cherries, ensuring sweetness and complexity in your cup. |  Brix RefractometerWe use refractometers to measure the sugar content of coffee cherries before picking. This ensures that each bean will be picked when it is at its optimum level of sweetness and cup complexity. | Imperfections float to the surface and are separated so they don't end up in your cup! |
|---|---|---|
Coffee drying on an African bed |  Coffee is either dried on patios or on raised African beds | Drying our natural process coffee from Finca Idealista! |
 We cup each coffee several times before deciding if it makes the cut for export |  Light sensors eliminate defects |  This vibrating weight-classifier helps sort out more imperfections |
 This classifier uses screens to sort coffees by size for certain special orders and to elimnate tiny screen sizes |  At the end of the line coffee is placed in special packaging to preserve freshness during sihpping |
Social Impact
Social impact is the motivation of our social enterprise, and it is made possible by high-cupping direct trade coffees. We offer responsible producers access to credit in a country where access to credit is non-existent for most. Every week we give free computing classes that are 90% female to break through "cement ceilings" for women. When a young girl who lives near Finca Idealista needed an expensive operation because of genetic bone deformations, we obtained it for her as well as a handicapped-accessible house. Recently, we installed running water in a school far off the utilitiy and water grids (we purchased all the supplies and the community helped with installation). We provide local schools with textbooks, desks, small libraries, and other educational necessities. Roasters are encouraged to get involved in these sustainable-development projects and to come see the results directly.
 We donated materials to install running water in this school and the community helped with installation. We are working with a nonprofit to hopefully build a new wing of this one-room schoolhouse (in which three grade levels receive class simultaneously). |  Free computing classes we give coffee youth each week |  Our free computing classes for coffee youth. Classes are mostly girls. |
|---|---|---|
 We donated textbooks to a school where teachers were literally using carbon paper to make lessons because some classes had one book for the entire class |  We donated textbooks to a school where teachers were literally using carbon paper to make lessons because some classes had one book for the entire class |  We donated books and furniture to hold a small library in our community's school |
 Producers use both loans and improved prices we offer to buy solar panels on their own. |  Every week we give free computing classes to youth from coffee communities |  We donated materials to install running water in this school and the community helped with installation |
 We distribute free guides to help producers defend against coffee leaf rust |  Free computing classes we give coffee youth each week |  This producer with whom we work used income from coffee to line a mini pond on his farm and raise fish for protein |
 We brought the students from our free computing classes to a local university to hopefully wet their appetite for education |  Our free computing classes for coffee youth. Classes are mostly girls. |  Our free computing classes for coffee youth. Classes are mostly girls. |
 We donated whiteboards to our community's school |
Environmental Sustainability
Shade trees protect biodiversity and add to the ecological sustainability of the mountains. On our farm (Finca Idealista), volcanic filters clean water run-off from washed coffee, and we compost coffee cherries for fertilizer. We also produce natural- and honey-process coffees, which cuts water use and creates jobs. We turn perfectly ripe coffee cherries into coffee cherry tea for roasters (also known as cascara tea), and we teach partner producers to utilize similar sustainability practices. During visits to our farm and partner producers' farms you can see endangered three-toed sloths, toucans, howler monkeys, tree frogs, hummingbirds, and exotic finches. We even bought a neighboring rainforest solely to protect it. The Specialty Coffee Association of Europe Board of Directors voted to give us their Excellence Award in 2016 for our work on sustainability.
 Three-toed sloth on Finca Idealista |  Camouflage tree frog on Finca Idealista |  Shade tree on the farm of a partner producer |
|---|---|---|
Producers know they must protect water sources in order to survive. |  Tree frog on Finca Idealista |  |
 Birds of paradise on the farm of a partner producer |  This flower on the farm of a partner producer is a natural hummingbird feeder |  |
 |  |  A lizard wonders what we're up to at our micromill in the distance |
 This ground-cover is used to prevent erosion on farms |  |  Producers often use credit we offer and improved prices to purchase solar panels |
 |  Tree frog |  |
 |  A shade tree on the farm of a partner producer |  |
 |  |  Coffee pulp can be made into coffee cherry tea (order ahead!) or used to add nutrients to the soil organically |