Overview

Suiza farm was acquired around 1952 by Carlos Menéndez and Dolores Salazar de Menendez, who had the vision to grow coffee there despite the rough access due to lack of proper roads and means of transportation, but this wasn’t as important as the idea of working hard, create jobs and give the local communities permanent support such as helping with the construction of a local school and a church. The farm was then inherited around the 70’s by Carlos Menéndez, their son, who did intensive works in the coffee fields making it one of the most productive farms in the Santa Ana volcano.

In 1986, Julia Margarita Molina Martínez, Carlos wife, started to take care of this farm and keep the coffee heritage within the family with the help of her sons, especially Juan Francisco who has been overseeing the farm since 2005.

Coffee is harvested with extreme care, only ripe cherries are allowed and cherry post harvest selection is always done in the farm to eliminate any remaining immature bean or dry pods. Coffee is processed in the San Carlos farm, also property of the Menéndez family, under strict quality controls, beginning with depulping within few hours after harvested. Wet Parchment is dropped in tanks and stays there until it reaches adequate point of fermentation, this lasts between 10 to 12 hours. They washed the coffee with clean fresh water to remove the mucilage and dry it on cement patios for 10 to 12 days until reaches 12% humidity. After this, it is storage to secure the quality for a longer period.

La Suiza farm is grown to Bourbon, Pacamara and Catimor. Pacamara was introduced to the farm in the early 90’s, some old Typica trees are still remaining inside this farm as legacy of Juan Francisco’s grandparents. Coffee is shade grown to maintain the ecosystem in balance and they replant every year coffee trees to keep a young productive plantation. They apply to foliar fertilizations; 1 application to prevent leaf rust; two soil fertilizations, coffee appreciative pruning, shade pruning, offshoot thinning and control weeds manually.
For Juan Francisco, the bean characteristics this year were a hint that Suiza was ready to win at the COE event, he is sure that microclimate due to the positive influence of surrounding forest and the position of the sun for growing coffee was accomplice of the intrinsic properties of Suiza’s coffee. The lot was selected from the highest point of the farm during one entire month. They employ 8 permanent workers and 20 people for harvesting time.
Juan Francisco is very keen to keep researching over their farm also, to discover other factors that allow them to produce a higher quality coffee, he believe there’s still room to improve and are willing to continue doing their “homework”.

Other Statistics:
Coffee varieties: Bourbón, Pacamara, Catimor
Type of Shade: Cypress, Pepeto Peludo, Copalchí, Pepeto de Río, etc.
Average Annual Rainfall: 2,200 mm
Average Temperature: 16º C
Type of Soil: Sandy loam
Annual Production: (60kg) 180 bags
Mill and company where lot was process: San Carlos Mill
Fauna: Armadillos, Central American Agouti, snakes, orioles, rabbits, etc.

GPS Coordinates:
Latitude: N 13º 52’ 16.8’’
Longitude: W 89º 36’ 44.4’’