The Valverde family began with a 1 hectare coffee farm in 2000 in the lush coffee valley of Santa Maria de Dota in the Tarrazu region of Costa Rica. Their coffee was sold as cherry to the local cooperative, Coopedota, then later sold as a regional blend. Over the years, the volume of coffee in Costa Rica has diminished due to decreasing coffee prices. For many families working in agriculture, the next generation is less interested in coffee farming as their viable career. Instead, many people go to college, move to the capital city of San Jose, and look for work in offices or other non-agricultural professions. By contrast, in 2016 the Valverde family established a new coffee business, called Hermano Valso, with complete focus on producing the highest quality coffees. They built a micro mill on their farm, Vara Blanca, to process their coffee which includes Honey and Natural Process coffees. Ernesto Jose Valverde Solis, a second generation Valverde family farmer, built the micro mill and raised beds to slowly dry coffee in the sun and under a large solar dryer. On the farm, coffee pickers select only the ripest cherries, sometimes making up to five passes during the harvest. Vara Blanca has now expanded to 7 hectares, adding new varieties of Milenio (higher yield F1 hybrid) and Catigua. They recently purchased a new farm in Copey, an area very close to Tarrazu, and planted an additional 500 trees of different coffee varieties. This year, Ernesto built a new cupping lab to create a space to test microlots, host cuppings for roasters, and to share their passion for quality coffee from their family's farm.
