Cerro San Luis Micromill is a family business run by two siblings Magali and Alexander Delgado and their spouses, who own and operate a collection of farms and a small mill in Grecia, in the West Valley.
Magali and Alexander inherited the land from their parents, but more than just the land itself, it was a love for cultivating it – especially coffee. Coffee holds an important, and nostalgic, place in the hearts of the Delgado family. Memories of childhood, of the coffee harvest coinciding with the Christmas break from school – classes ending in November, right as the coffee harvest arrives, and returning to class in March as the harvest cycle ends. Alexander believes it was this that taught him the importance of both hard-work, and an education.
In the interest of improving their quality and remaining competitive, the Delgado’s have focused on growing different varieties, and about 4 years ago they replaced their older stock with 10 or more different types of coffee, including Caturra, Red and Orange Bourbon, SL-28, Catuai, Villa Sarchi, and Maragogype.
The family's farms are adjacent to one another, but the plots are given separate names for lot separation purposes, and the mill is located at the family home, just a few miles away. As is common at mills in Costa Rica, at Cerro San Luis the type of honey is decided by how much mucilage is left on the coffee after depulping. Yellow Honey typically falls in the middle; more mucilage than a white honey, but less than a red or black honey.
