From Cherry to Cup: The Story of Our Estate Coffee

Most guests arrive at Hacienda La Palma expecting great coffee. What they do not expect is to stand among the trees that grew it, hold the cherry in their hands, and trace every step from fruit to the cup waiting in their casita.

A Plantation at 1,000 Meters

The coffee at Hacienda La Palma is not sourced from a cooperative or purchased from a neighboring farm. It grows here, on the estate, at roughly 1,000 meters above sea level in the foothills beneath Mount Chirripi. The altitude, the volcanic soil, and the consistent cloud cover of the Southern Zone create growing conditions that most specialty producers spend years trying to replicate.

Our arabica varieties thrive in shade provided by native canopy trees and fruit species that double as part of the food forest. The farm operates without large-scale machinery. Cherries are picked by hand during harvest season, typically between December and March, when the fruit turns a deep, saturated red.

From Cherry to Parchment

Once picked, the cherries are processed on site. The fruit is depulped to remove the outer skin, then fermented in small tanks to break down the mucilage layer. After washing, the beans — still in their parchment shell — are laid out on raised drying beds where they spend roughly two weeks under the Southern Zone sun, turned by hand several times a day.

This washed process produces a clean, bright cup with citrus notes and a light body that reflects the elevation. Some batches are processed as honeys or naturals, which retain more of the fruit sugars and produce a sweeter, more full-bodied result. The method depends on the season, the variety, and sometimes just the weather.

Roasting on the Estate

The dried parchment coffee is hulled and sorted before roasting. We roast in small batches on the property, adjusting profiles to bring out the character of each harvest. The goal is never to over-roast or mask the origin. The coffee should taste like where it comes from: bright, clean, and distinctly Southern Zone.

A bag of this coffee is placed in every casita before guests arrive. It is the first thing you smell when you open the door.

The Guest Experience

Every stay at Hacienda La Palma includes access to a guided farm and coffee plantation tour. The walk takes one to two hours and covers the full lifecycle: the nursery where seedlings start, the rows of producing trees, the wet mill where cherries are processed, the drying beds, and finally the roasting area where beans are prepared for the cup.

Guests pick cherries when they are in season, taste the fruit (it is surprisingly sweet), and compare different processing methods side by side. The tour is not a scripted presentation. It is a walk through a working farm with the people who tend it every day.

For those who want to go deeper, we offer cupping sessions where you can taste the difference between a washed lot and a natural from the same harvest. Children are welcome on the tour and often become the most enthusiastic cherry pickers on the property.

Beyond the Cup

The coffee plantation is just one part of the broader estate. The same walk takes you through the food forest — cacao, plantains, citrus, starfruit, guava — and past the fermentary where kombucha and other small-batch products are made. The farm is not an attraction layered on top of a resort. It is the foundation the entire property was built on.

When you sit on your terrace in the morning and take that first sip, you are tasting something that was grown, processed, and roasted within a few hundred meters of where you are sitting. That is not a marketing line. It is just how the farm works.