On your marks, get set, go!, On your marks, get set, coffee!, On your marks, get set, coffee!

World-renowned, Costa Rica’s“el grano de oro”is surely the best coffee in the world. Whether you’re enjoying a small cup of Typica or a large cup of Bourbon, the finesse and aroma ofCosta Rican pure Arabica coffeesare sure to delight your taste buds.

Created by the ACE (Alliance for Coffee Excellence), the “Taza de la Excelencia” is a competition held annually in Costa Rica. The goal of this competition is to select the country’s best coffees for a given year and then sell them at auction. Whether a large producer or a smallcoffee farmer, every participant has an equal chance of winning the competition, and it’s an incredible opportunity for them, since the selected coffees can enter new niche markets where buyers are willing to pay the price for such high quality. Constantly evolving, today’s coffee beans release more aromas and less caffeine. During the competition, each coffee is tasted at least five times by national and international judges (from the U.S., Europe, and Japan), who evaluate thousands of cups in just a few days… That might be a bit much to handle!

This year, the Leoncio finca, owned by the Barrantes Zúñiga brothers in Alajuela (Central Valley), took first place among the sixty participants in the first qualifying round for the 8th edition of the “Cup of Excellence 2015” international auction. Congratulations!

See you on June 17 to find out the auction results…

As for us, the Terra Caribea team has found its favorite:Naturalba. 100% pure Arabica, the coffee is organic or grown using environmentally friendly methods. It’s a cooperative of small-scale producers in the region who, individually, would not have had access to traditional distribution channels. Every effort is made to ensure that the coffee beans are sold as processed products rather than as raw materials, and the majority of the revenue goes to the farmers rather than to commercial intermediaries.

That’s how, every morning when we turn on the coffee maker, we support this wonderful project! If you’d like, you can find more information about Naturalba by clicking here:Naturalba’s website.

Check out the introductory video by clicking here:Coffee from Us to You

You can also visit them in Turrialba by taking this trip:The Flight of the Toucan

So, how would you like it—with or without sugar?